Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1894-05-22
NEW SERIES, VOL. xxx, NO. q.
''There came a loud knocking at my nv

IAhcI v O11- AA1<A, NO. Il.
I---------------.---7 =
'@rhere came loud knocking at my
Who is theres' I asked.
1t is /, came the voice fmy father.
Open, beg of you.
Il went to the door, raised the latch
and admitted him. My mother was with
him They were fully dressed
't 'Boomr came through the white
mist from the vessel pounding upon the
beach.
eyes, now could hear the vessel as
she beat her brains out
Then the heavens were illumined by
a second rocket.
did you hear9 Did you seep asked
my father
Yes, said /, tits vessel ashore.
We must go to that vessel, he said
resolutely. They will need our help
You will gog'
:" Yes, said.
"'And I, too, cried my mother.
My father tried to Clissuade her.
This is no woman's work, he said
But she would not be frightened.
(" will die with you, she said reso-
lutely.
Out into the storm we rushed, down
to the beach, where the frightened viii
layers stood looking vainly out toward
the doomed vessel.
They ran toward us rs we approach
ed They would not go out in the boat,
they said-it was death.
AT least, said my father, you will
help me get the boat into the surf?'
But they would not even help get
the boat into the surf.
1t is death you are going to, Ayr
ault. We will not help to murder you,
they cried
Then stand aside, and together we
three pushed the boat into the surf,
through the rocks to the open sea, then
jumped into her and put off over the
f1ercely rolling waves My mother and
myself took the oars. My father stood
at the bow looking out ahead
Come back, came faint echo
from the shore.
"a great wild wave came crashing
down upon us.
Nearer and nearerl
The boat cried out, almost, it seemed,
like a human being in terror.
The wave struck the boat.
'"The cold water rushed over my head.
81 went downtown.
II struggled to the surface
For second 1 caught sight of my
father and mother as they struggled in
the embrace of death.
II could see their eyes turned at the
last toward me.
Come. their eyes cried to me.
Come.
81 tried to cry out to them 1 tried to
cry to them to wait for me; that we
would die together in each others arms.
i struggled to get nearer to them"
q
Then something seemed to snap in my
head, and once more L stood on the
beach.
''You are faint?" she said.
MY father" muttered, where is
"Your fatherl'
''Yes, yes, the old man, where is he?''
See, he is stumbling along there. -
Like one in dream, he came slowly
toward us.
Terror and pleasure stupefied me.
His eyes rested ON the snow in front
of him. Then suddenly he raised them
to mine.
He threw mp his arms; he started for
ward; he cried out, a cry of peace, hap
piness, cry from a soul flowing over
with exultation.
My fathers eyes looked deep into
mine. My father's arms were about my
neck.
cat last, (" he cried, sat last, my son,
back to me, and now rest
And with low moan the old man
Ayrault, my father-fell back upon tho
snow and was dead.
And now often my father and my
mother come to me when the moon
shines in upon my couch, and we sit to-
gether in the moonlight, and he tells me
the old story; how during his lifetime
my mother and had come to him to
minister to him; how had promised to
come back to him so that he might rest.
ask him every night if am to live
ON forever, but he answers not
So we hold each others hands, and
the spirits in the moonlight sing to us,
and we are happy.
1, even ], am happy, though they do
keep me locked up here in a cell night
and day.-New York Sun.
Fifty Feet of Rainfall Annually.
There is ALWAYS moro or loss o,,,ass-