Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-01-04
TfffffH ffffH PARFfffSA
A Romance of the American Revolution
BY w. GILMORE SIMMS
CHAPTER XII.


Keeping close in cover, Major Sim
gleton and his guide paused at length
In the shelter of a gigantic oak, tnat
grew, with a hundred others, along the
extreme borders of the park grounds
The position had been judiciously TAX
en-, as 1t gave them an unobstructed
view Of the Mansion House, the lawn
in front, and a portion OF the ADJACENT
garden. They were themselves partial
occupants of the finest ornament OF
the estate-the extensive grove Of SOL
emn oaks, with arms branching out on
every side, sufficient each OF them for
the shelter of troop. They rose,
thickly placed all around the dwelling,
concentrating in a beautiful defile up
on the front, and thus continuing for
the distance Of a full mile until they
gathered in mass upon the main road
OF the country. In the rear they
stretched away singly or in groups,
artfully disposed, but without regular
ity, down to the very verge Of the
river, over which many OF them
sloped with all their weight OF limbs
and luxuriance upon them; their long
dropping boards Of white moss hang
ing down mournfully, and dipping in
to the river at every pressure OF the
wind upon the boughs, from which
they depended. Under one Of these
trees, the largest among them, the
very patriarch Of the collection, the
two adventures paused; Singleton
throwing himself upon a cluster OF the
thick roots which had risen above and
now ran along the surface, while his
companion, like true scout, wander
ed off in other parts OF the grove with
the hope to obtain intelligence, or at
least to watch the movements OF the
British officers, whose presence had
prevented their own approach TO the
dwelling.
AS Singleton gazed around upon the
prospect, the whole scene grew fresh
under his eye; and though many years
had elapsed since, In the buoyancy
and thoughtlessness Of boyhood, he
had rambled over It, yet gradually old
acquaintances grew again familiar to
his glance. The tree he knew again
under which he had formerly played.
The lawn spread freely onward. as OF
old. over which, In sweet company, ne
had once gambolled-the little olumps
Of shrub trees here and there, still
grew as he had once known them;
and his heart grew softened amid its
many cares as his memory brought to
him those treasures of the past, which
were all his own when nothing of strife
was in his fortunes.
What a god Is memory, to keep In
life-to endow with an unslumbering
vitality beyond that Of our own ma
ture--its unconscious company-the
things that seem only born for its en-
joyment-that have no tongues to
make themselves felt-and no claim
upon 1t, only as they have ministered,
ignorant Of their own value, to the
tastes and necessities Of a superior!
How more than dear-how precious
are our recollections! How like so
many volumes, in which time has
written on his passage the history Of
the affections and the hopes! Their
names may be trampled upon In our
passion, blotted with our tears, thrown
aside in our thoughtlessness, but moth
ing Of their sacred traces may be OBJ
liberated They are with us, for good
or for evil, for ever! They last US
when the father and the mother Of our
boyhood are gone. They bring them
back as in infancy. We are again at
their knee-we prattle at their feet
we see them smile upon, and we know
that they love us. How dear is such
an assurance! How sweetly, when the
world has gone wrong with us, when
the lover is a needless Indifferent,
when the friend has been tried and
found wanting. do they cluster before
our eyes as If they knew our desire,
and strOve to minister to our necessi-
ties! True. they call forth our tears,
but they take the weight from our
hearts. They are never false to us
better, far better, were we more fire.
quently true to them!
Such were the musings Of Single
ton. as reclined along the roots of the
old tree, and sheltered by it's branches,
his eye took in, and his memory re-
vived, the thousand scenes which he
had once known Of boyish frolic, when
life wore, If not a better aspect Of
hope to his infant mind, at least a
far less unpleasant show of its many
privations. Not a tree grew before
him which he did not remember for
some little prank or incident; and a
thousand circumstances were linked
with the various objects that, once ia
miliar, were still unforgotten. Moth
Ing seemed to have undergone a
change-nothing seemed to have been
impaired The touches Of time upon
the old oak had rather mellowed into
a fitting sOlemnity the aspect Of that
To which we should scarcely ever look
for a different expression.
While he yet mused mingling in his
mind the waters of those sweet and
bitter thoughts which make up the
life tide Of the wide ocean Of memory,
the dusk Of evening came on. soft in
its sOlemnity. and unoppressive even
in its gloom. under the sweet sky and
unmolested zephyr, casting its pleas
ant shadows along the edges Of the
grove. The moon, at the same time
rising stealthily among the tree-tops
in the east, was seeking to pale her
Intellectual fires while yet some
traces Of the sun were still bright in
waving lines and fragments upon the
opposite horizon. Along the river
which kept up murmur upon the
low banks, the breeze SKINNED play
fully and fresh. and what with its
pleasant chidings, the hum Of the
tree tops bending beneath its embrace
and the still more certain appreciation
by his memory of the genius of the
Faalin1 % hO-