Year: 1868




merrily around the hills and through the
elades in the suburbs of Winchester
a quiet little place in Ohio-making
mellow music the livelong day. The
robin and the thrush lived upon its
banks, and the peculiar note of the cat
bird could be distinctly heard in the
calm, dusky evening, as it faded slowly
into sable hooded night. The lively
minnow sped about in the clear water,
throwing it up in tiny jets, till it spark
led like a coruscation Of diamonds in
the clear morning sunlight. The antlc
squirrel leaped among the branches OF
the trees that stood upon its margin,
and gathered his store OF beech and
hickory nuts into the Old wind shaken
] elm, where he had his leaiy nest, and
where, cuddled up in comfort and securi-
! ty, he passed the snowy months of drea-
ry winter Every thing near it seemed
as happy and contented as its bright
waves, as they rippled over the messy
stones or hoated carelessly on its broad
bosom, as it widened by the giant syca-
mores that overreach it, hiding it from
the fervid heat of noon, and the starry
myriads at night. Yet all were not hap
py who dwelt within hearing of its gen.
tie murmurs. Sorrow and poignant grief
smote the heart strings Of gentle be-
ing, whose silvery laugh had often
caused the playful little stream to almost
cease its flow, and listen [ if inanimate
things can listen) to sweeter melody
than its own. Free and simple in man
ner, attire, and gentle in bearing, Rutha
Mitchell had won the hearts of all in
whose society she had been thrown;
lively without being wild, modest with
out being prude, she combined all
those graces and accomplishments SO
seldom found together, into one, SO dig
nified and easy, that it pleased and made
you comfortable, while it allowed OF no
great familiarity. She was not beauty,
but there were those who thought her
pretty, there was some power Of attrac
ton about her which but few could un-
| derstand:


at was not mrth, for mirth she too st
| 1t not wit, wit leaves the heart more chill,
| But that continuous sweetness which with ease,
Pieases all around it from the wish 20 please"
This was the charm that Rutha's smile
| bes slowed. She loved! Young Edgar Riv
ers seemed all that a maiden could ask at
the hands of her lover; for years they
had been as brother and sister. He
was the only son of a widowed mother,
W hose whole life was centered in him,
household. Thus it


"No stranger seemed that hearts


So gentle, employed, should close in 1--we,


Than when two dewprops on the petal shake,


To the same sweet air, and tremble deeper down,


And drop at once, all fragrant into one"


For years her life had been as happy,
and her spirits as buoyant as the zephyrs
that sway the leafy forest, and push the
1eecy clouds across the arch of Heaven.
But, "a change came o'er the spirit of
her dream;'' the little cloud ia her hap
pv horizon gradually increased till, vo
luminous and vast, it settled round her
like pail, shutting out from her once
joyous heart all the golden rays of hap
piness, and filling it with woe and mis-
cry. Edgar, free and generous to a
fault. the pride of his friends, the star
OF hope to his sainted mother, like all
| mortals. was not perfection. He had one
fault, the life of his companions, and Of
the social gathering, his willingness to
please, his anxiety lest he should offend,
his inability to refuse, often led him
astray, and in moments of pleasure and
thoughtlessness the wine cup had passed
his lips. After the first step the second
is easier; the first glass being taken, the
second followed, and Edgar was taken
home perfectly unconscious. Oh! what
sight to that fond, loving mother, what
feelings of pain and anguish must have
wrung her bosom, what shame and NOR
tification! Edgar, her only son, the
pride and JOY of ner life, the prop and
stay of her declining years; he to whom
she had attributed every manly virtue
drunk! before her eyes, victim to the
demon of the still! With clasped hands
and streaming eyes upturned to heaven,
she besought the All Wise Being blot
forever the dreadful curse from the face
of the earth; to make it as gall and
wormwood to those who engage in the
sinful traffic of daily sending souls to
hell!


Such was the mothers grief but who!
who can describe the agony of heart
and sickness of soul, when Rutha learned
that he, into whose hands she had en-
trusted her happiness, had SO degraded
himself. Her lamp of happiness burnt
| to it's lowest ebb, and fickered sadly as