網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

locked, as usual, in each other's arms, face to face; and their innocent breath mingling from lips that nearly touched. I could not find heart to separate them; nor could I have done so without awaking Edward. His cheeks were red and

flushed, and his sleep broken and full of starts.

2. "Early in the morning, I went to their bed-side. Henry was lying apart from his brother, looking at him with a tearful face, and his little arm laid so as to touch his bosom. Edward was unable to rise. His throat was painful, his pulse high, and his heart sick. Before evening he became slightly +delirious, and his illness was evidently a fever of a dangerous and *malignant kind. He was, as I told you, a bold and gladsome child; when not at his task, dancing and singing almost every hour; but the fever quickly *subdued his spirit; the shivering fits made him weep and wail; and trueful indeed was the change which a single night and day had brought forth.

3. "His brother seemed to be afraid more than children usually are of sickness, which they are always slow to link with the thoughts of death. But he told me, weeping, that his eldest brother had died of a fever, and that his mother was always alarmed about that disease. 'Did I think,' asked he, with wild eyes and a +palpitating heart, 'did I think that Edward was going to die?' I looked at the affectionate child, and taking him to my bosom, I felt that his own blood was beating but too quickly, and, that fatal had been that night's sleeping embrace in his brother's bosom. The fever had tainted his sweet veins also, and I had soon to lay him shivering on his bed. In another day, he too was delirious, and too plainly chasing his brother into the grave.

4. "Never in the purest hours of their healthful happiness, had their innocent natures seemed to me more beautiful, than now, in their delirium. As it increased, all vague fears of dying left their souls, and they kept talking as if to each other, of every thing here or in England, that was pleasant and interesting. Now and then, they murmured the names. of persons of whom I had not formerly heard them speak; friends who had been kind to them before I had known of their existence, and servants in their mother's or their father's +household. Of their mother they spoke to themselves,

although necessarily kept apart, almost in the very same words, expecting a visit from her at the Manse, and then putting out their little hands to embrace her. All their little, innocent plays were acted over and over again, on the bed of death. They were looking into the nests of the little singing-birds, which they never injured, in the hedge-rows, and the woods. And the last intelligible words that I heard Edward utter were these 'Let us go, brother, to the church-yard, and lie down on the daisies, among the little, green mounds!'

5. "They died within an hour of each other. I lifted up Henry, when I saw he too was dead, and laid him down beside his brother. There lay the twins, and had their mother at that hour come into the room, she would have been thankful to see that sight, for she would have thought that her children were in a calm and refreshing sleep!"

6. My eyes were fixed upon the sculptured images of the dead, lying side by side, with their faces turned to heaven; their little hands folded, as in prayer, upon their bosoms, and their eyelids closed. The old man drew a sigh, almost like a sob, and wept. They had been entrusted to his care; they had come smilingly from another land; for one summer they were happy, and then disappeared, like fading flowers, from the earth. I wished that the old man would cease his touching narrative, both for his sake and my own. So I rose, and walked up quite close to the monument, inspecting the spirit of its design, and marking the finish of its execution. But he called me to him, and requesting me to resume my seat beside him on the grave-stone, he thus continued :

7. "I had written to their mother in England, that the children were in extreme danger; but it was not possible that she could arrive in time to see them die; not even to see them buried. Decay was fast preying upon them, and the beauty of death was beginning to disappear; so we could not wait the arrival of their mother, and their grave was made. Even the old, gray-headed sexton wept; for in this case of mortality, there was something to break in upon the ordinary tenor of his thoughts, and to stir up in his heart, feelings that he could not have known existed there. There was sadness, indeed, over all the parish for the fair English

twins, who had come to live in the Manse after all the other boys had left it: and who, as they were the last, so were they loveliest of all my flock. The very sound, or accent of their southern voices, so pretty and engaging to our ears, in the simplicity of childhood, had won many a heart, and touched, too, the imaginations of many with a new delight; and, therefore, on the morning when they were buried, it may be said there was here a fast day of grief.

8. "The next day their mother arrived at the Manse. She knew, before she came, that her children were dead and buried. It is true that she wept, and at the sight of the grave, for they both lay in one coffin,―her grief was passionate and bitter. But that fit soon passed away. Her tears were tears of pity for them, but, as for herself, she hoped that she was soon to see them in heaven. Her face pale, yet flushed; her eyes hollow, yet bright; and general languor and lassitude over her whole frame, all told that she was in the first stage of a consumption. Soon, other duties called her back to England, for the short remainder of her life. She herself drew the design of that monument with her own hand, and left it with me when she went away. I soon heard of her death. Her husband lies near Grenada, in Spain; she lies in the chancel of the cathedral of Salisbury, in England; and there, sleep her twins, in the little burialground of Auchindown, a Scottish parish."

[blocks in formation]

1. O THAT those lips had language! Life has pass'd
With me but roughly, since I heard thee last.
My mother, when I learn'd that thou wast dead,
Say, wast thou +conscious of the tears I shed?
Hover'd thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son,
Wretch even then, life's journey just begun?
Perhaps thou gav'st me, thought unfelt, a kiss;
Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss:
Ah, that maternal smile! it answers-Yes.

2. I heard the bell toll'd on thy burial day;
I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away;

And, turning from my nursery window, drew
A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu.
But was it such? It was. Where thou art gone,
Adieus and farewells are a sound unknown,
And, if I meet thee on that peaceful shore,
The parting word shall pass my lips no more.

3. Thy maidens, griev'd themselves at my concern,
Oft gave me promise of thy quick return;
What ardently I wish'd, I long believ'd;
And disappointed still, was still deceiv'd;
By expectation, every day beguil'd,
+Dupe of tomorrow, even when a child.
Thus many a sad tomorrow came and went,
Till, all my stock of infant sorrow spent,
I learn'd at last, submission to my lot;
But, though I less +deplore thee, ne'er forgot.

4. My boast is not, that I declare my birth
From loins tenthron'd and rulers of the earth ;
But higher far my proud *pretensions rise
The son of parents pass'd into the skies.
And now, farewell. Time tunrevok'd has run
His wonted course, yet what I wish'd is done,

5. By +contemplation's help, not sought in vain,
I seemed t' have lived my childhood o'er again;
To have renew'd the joys that once were mine,
Without the sin of violating thine;
And while the wings of fancy still are free,
And I can view this +mimic show of thee,
Time has but half succeeded in his theft:
Thyself remov'd, thy power to soothe me left.

CXVI. AN EVENING ADVENTURE.

1. Nor long since, a gentleman was traveling in one of the counties of Virginia, and about the close of the day stopped at a public house to obtain refreshment and spend the night. He had been there but a short time, before an old man alighted from his gig, with the tapparent intention of becoming his fellow guest at the same house.

2. As the old man drove up, he observed that both the

shafts of his gig were broken, and that they were held together by withes, formed from the bark of a hickory sapling. Our traveler observed further, that he was plainly clad, that his knee buckles were loosened, and that something like negligence *pervaded his dress. Conceiving him to be one of the honest yeomanry of our land, the courtesies of strangers passed between them, and they entered the tavern. It was about the same time, that an addition of three or four young gentlemen, was made to their number; most, if not all of them, of the legal profession.

3. As soon as they became conveniently accommodated, the conversation was turned, by one of the latter, upon the eloquent harangue which had that day been displayed at the bar. It was replied by the other, that he had witnessed, the same day, a degree of eloquence, no doubt equal, but it was from the pulpit. Something like a sarcastic rejoinder was made as to the eloquence of the pulpit, and a warm and able altercation ensued, in which the merits of the Christian religion became the subject of discussion. From six o'clock until eleven, the young champions wielded the sword of argument, adducing with ingenuity and ability every thing that could be said pro and con.

4. During this protracted period, the old gentleman listened with the meekness and modesty of a child, as if he were adding new information to the stores of his own mind; or perhaps he was observing with a "philosophic eye, the faculties of the youthful mind, and how new energies are evolved by repeated action; or perhaps, with patriotic emotion, he was reflecting upon the future destinies of his country, and on the rising generation, upon whom those future destinies must devolve; or, most probably, with a sentiment of moral and religious feeling, he was collecting an argument which no art would be "able to elude, and no force to resist." Our traveler remained a spectator, and took no part in what was said.

5. At last, one of the young men, remarking that it was impossible to combat with long and established *prejudices, wheeled around, and with some familiarity, exclaimed, "Well, my old gentleman, what think you of these things?" If, said the traveler, a streak of vivid lightning had at that

« 上一頁繼續 »