Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-06-25

az ehat Sile lelt ner neart grow Slcl
with anxiety.
a few days later, as she and heI
children were sitting down to thei,
breakfast, she saw one of her few
neighbors riding up to the door,
Ihat he should have come away from
his home in the busy morning hours
betokened something unusual, and
no sooner had she looked in his face
than she exclaimed:
"Tell me at once, nv husband i
drowned
"How did you know" he re-
sponded, thus confirming her fears
and he handed her copy of the To-
cal newspaper, in which she read
that the steamer by which her hus
band intended to return had foun.
dered at sea. The date tailed with
her child's dream, and that circum.
stance seemed to her conclusive; SO
that when her friend tried to point
out to her that there was no proof
of her husbands death, she only an.
swered that she had received fear.
tul warning, and gave herself up tc
sorrow
AT the end of few days MIR. p
quietly walked in, and was q good
deal astonished at the agony of al
most terrified joy with which his ar,
rival was greeted.
1t was by the merest chance that
he had not been in the lost vessel
he had taken his passage, and had
actually gone on board, when he
was struck with the extreme low.
ness of the bulwarks, and thought
that, should there be bad wealth.
he, with his still helpless arm,
might be in some danger of being
washed overheard. He therefore re-
turned to the shore, and arranged ia
come by the next ship instead. So
there the story ends, except that we
hope no time was lost in administer
ing dose of physic to the trouble
some little dreamer.
The next story, perhaps, ought
hardly to be placed in the same cate
CORY with the others, since it is
possible that the warning may have
prevented its own fulfilment.
My great-grandmother was an ac-
tive Lady Bountiful to a very rustic
country population, over whose aE-
fairs, temporal and spiritual, she ex-
ercised benevolent, if slightly ty-
rsnnical, sway. Among her most
frequent pensioners was Soft Billy,
as he was called, a poor halfwitted
lad, generally quite harmless, but
subject to occasional fits of temper,
in which he was hard to deal with.
inh hn oh
walking along lane in the neigh
borhOod, when, from gap in the
hedge, Soft Billy suddenly jumped
down into the path before her, bran
dishing reaping hook. His flaming
eyes and distorted face showed that
his &C dark hour" was upon him, and
In another second he had flown at
her, his fingers were gripping her
throat with deadly strength, the
steel flashed before her eyes, the
very bitterness Of death was rushing
over her, and she awoke; awoke
quivering all over, the cold perspi-
ration standing on her forehead, and
her heart beating to suffocation.
1t was long before she could force
herself to meet Soft Billy, even in
the presence Of others, and for
months she avoided the lane she had
traversed in her dream.
At last some sudden case Of dis
tress In the village called for her
presence, some sick child was to be
physicked, or some wife, beating
husband to be brought to book, and
and my great-gGandmother set forth,
never recollecting, till she had gone
some distance, that she must inevi-
tably pass through the dreaded lane.
On she went, laughing ct her own
fears, till suddenly she saw before
her the very gap which had appeared
in her dream, and which she had
never noticed before, and, at that
moment, from that very gap, down
jumped Soft Billy, and in his hand
he brandished reaping-hook.
The dream, in all its horrors,
seemed on the verge of fulfilment,
but my great-grandmother was a
strong-minded woman, and, though
her heart was throbbing with terror,
she neither screamed nor tainted
she walked straight up to the idiot,
and gave him a kindly greeting.
81 am glad to see you, Billy;
am walking to the end Of the lane,
and now you shall take care of me-"
The lad, highly flattered, was meek
and amiable In moment, and they
walked the rest of the way together,
she keeping up an incessant chatter
in her most CHEEKY tones, though
her heart was doubtless beating at
every swing of the ungainly figure,
and every flourish Of the deadly
weapon in the poor, purposeless
fingers. At the cottage door she
thanked him, and wished him good.
bye; and it will readily he believed
that she procured another escort for
her walk home. ...
Now for my last story, which l
had from the lips of venerable
Presbyterian minister, the last man
to indulge his imagination.
He was in the habit of going every
sunday afternoon to conduct the
worship at a little village on the
coast of Scotland. One Saturday
night he dreamed vivid dream
He saw the village, and the bay, the
waves tossing and beating in storm,
and he saw a pleasure boat upset,
and dashed to pieces against the
rocks. Two men were buffeting
with the water, fighting for their
lives; one fair, slight youth; the
other a middle-aged sailor. AS the
dreamer looked ne saw them both
clutch at and cling to a floating spar (;
1t swayed and sank under the double
weight, and, while the thought
passed through his mind, cit can
never support them both," he saw