The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-09-07

81 found without woman-lo!
white face in the cold white snow.
| grasped the sinking form-I bore
1t to the cave, and leaning Ger
The wonderful eyes, My God!' cried.
Twas she-'twas she-the Iost-mv
bride!
Deaths ashen Tailor blanched her cheek
Yet her faint lips found voice to speak
While I her cold hands frantic strained
Unto my heart, and on them rained
A food of tears. With failing strength
She whispered that always with me
Her soul had been, until at length
Strong love prevailed-o'er land and
She came to seek me-drew so near
That nothing but the peaks cloud
capped
Divided ps-the storm was drear,
But in pure prayerful purpose wrapped
She dared the toil-was lost, but stayed
Not by the danger-undismaye
At loss of guide and help, she still
Prayed heaven her piteous plea to
grant,
And prayed and struggled on until
She saw a dim ray Pickering slant
Between the falling flakes, then cried
For help and sank
Alas, the tide OF her life was swiftly
receding. Her voice FELL the lids closed
''as if in dreamful rest" family she
whispered-and died! 1t was an awful
night, sad partaking of Sins bitter
fruit" a dreadful watch till the dawn of
morning. Then onward with a doubly sad
mission to the Indians home.
THE sleep
OF death set seal upon his eyes
Ere | could reach him, and | found
Him still and prone upon the ground
OF his rude dwelling-place, and there
His child played, never having seen
Death, and had coyly placed between
The braided lengths of his black hair
Some eagle feathers. Now you know
Whence came the star-eyed girl. And so
My story ends.
But in one final sentence the hermit
speaks again of her whose life and fate
were so strangely interviewer with his
own:
"Yes-on that mountain height at rest
She lies, my poor unhappy love.
She leans upon her SaviOrs breast
Tonight perhaps, and from above
The storms of life and land and sea
Prays him at last to welcome me-"
One more scene remains to be pictured.
The sad story told, the three lonely in
mates of that solitary hermitage in the
now white wilderness of mountains sat
for a time musing 'in silence deep
and saddening" Then came the good
night and each was soon in slumber
land. Far in the night the storm broke,
the wind was laid, and the risen moon
threw its cold light upon the icy earth.
But a light stronger and stranger than
that of slanting moonbeans filled the
room of the hermit across the hall from
his friend. 1t seemed ito fall shfning
upon his pillowed head such light as
one other Christmas morn reused watch
ing shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem.
Awakened from her slumbers, the tawny
grid OWNED angelic presence and the more
philosophical stranger reaching his
friends bedside found on his face smile
which he felt to be "the trace of greet
ing to some heavenly guest" The hermit
was no morei
Next day the guest quenched the ashen
brand upon the hearth and carved a
cross to mark the hermit's grave The
maiden was now in his care so that the
death of the hermit lost not the Iro-
quois a faithful friend Thence and
henceforth perhaps she exchanged the
mountain solitude for the scenes of a
happy civilization. And so, in the closing
words of the poem,
Let time destroy
With storm of rain and wins amoan
The old deserted house of stone"
HIGHT C. MOORE.
New Bern. N. c.
Some of the aphorisms from The Con-
fessions of Matchmaking Mother" are
as follows:
Never hasten events. That is one of
the first principles of good generalship."
AN interrupted proposal is an abso-
Iutely fatal thing, and may never be
finished"
There are people of all kinds in this
world All that one can do is take them
as they are, and make the best of them"
1.-The height of art is to hide art"
"There is nothing that so enhances the
value of thing in ones eyes as having
/ lost it,
THE type Of woman selected by a
clever man is generally pretty empty and
affectionate Heart appeals to him much
more than mind of which he is rather
sick"
/ No historian has treated the romantic
period of French history with greater
skill and success than Julia Parde, the
author of Court and Reign of Francis
First, King of France, Louis XIV, and
the Court of France in the Seventeenth
! Century and Life of Marie dc Medicis,
Queen of France" James Pott &, Co.
These works form noble series. COM
parable to Motley's upon the Dutch Re-
public, and are written in the same liberal
spirit and with the same grasp of per-
sonalities and events. Outside of their
historical value, they are fascinating
from their poetic and picturesque quality
They clothe facts with reality and grace
Invaluable to the student and editor, they
! are a noble addition to the library OF
every reader who desires the best books
upon all important themes.
The preface by Professor Adolphe Cohn
/ of Columbia University is n SchoIa RI