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ae,
rr,
ceed, icant ts imams, “isin Meech Teste
cool mabriabanerenn avin cetennee ceils Mal ia” > “amma been e902, llmaer ts.
2 Be
20
Dodge's Literary Museum.
Jacl turned away after bidding the other
servants good-by, to meet her mother’s glad
smile, and hear her whisper,
“My child, you have lightened my heart.
I fear for you no longer. You have con-
quered yourself nobly.” .
“0, mamma,” said she, earnestly, “it is
s0 easy to be good when you are looking
on! When I get to school, if I feel angry,
I shall think you are standing right beside
- me, and the feeling will go away.”
“ Now, then, Jael,” said "Squire Ingra-
ham, taking her from her mother’s arms as
she received her last kiss, and laughing
heartily to conceal the tears that stood in
his eyes, “time is up, and you must be off.
One year will soon go by, and then I shall
see you mounted on Moonlight again; only
don’t grow so tall before you come that
your feet will touch the ground. There,
take her, Ellis, and take good care of her.
What a little heroine it is! She will not
shed one tear, though her little heart is al-
most breaking.. God bless you, darling!
If you were my own child, I could not love
you better.”
He placed her in the. carriage beside the
servant who was to see her safely to her
journey’s end. There wasa moment’s de-
lay; then the | coach-door was shut, the
horses started, and. with one last glance at
the sweet face of her mother, Jael was
bor ne rapidly away.
‘Chapter Third.
O, you for whom I write! whose hearts can melt
' At the soft, thrilling voice whose power you prove,
Yor know what charm, unutterably felt,
Attends the unexpected voice of love.
rs. Tighe’s “ Psyche.”
Ab! let our love be still a folded flower,
A pure moss rose-bud, blushing to be scen,
Hoarding its balm and beauty for that hour =~
When souls may meet without the clay between.
Ah! keep it holy. Once the veil withdrawn,
Once the rose blooms; its balmy soul will fly,
As fled of old, in sadness, yet in scorn,
Th’ aw: akened Goa from Isyche's daring eye.
: —Frances Sargent Osgood.
There is no
life so free and careless and beauti-
fully happy as that of a young girl at board-
ing-school. Life for her has just begun.
‘The past lies behind her, a pleasant memo-
ry of kind looks and gentle words; the fu-
tare, how unclouded is its azure sky! And
around her are graveful forms and sweet
young faces, in -whose clear eyes she reads
nothing but innocence and love. Alas!
that the glories of an earthly Eden must
66 pri in Arcadia Ego!”
life itself. And remembering all those early
loves, and some which, have lighted my
womanhood, summing up all the happiness
they have conferred upon me, I know and
feel that she who gave me that token was
dearer than any other ever can be; that
my heart lingers around her grave witha
love that it has never yet bestowed upon
the living.. O, my lost and buried, yet un-
forgotten Julia! Still dear as ever! Still
prized aboveall others! “I too have dwelt
in Arcadia.” .
Five years had passed away, bringing
with them many changes. The Abbey still
smiled pleasantly as ever in the summer
sunshine, but he who once called it his own,
lay sleeping in the village churchyard. A
little mound had been raised up close beside
his last resting-place, and there Altha had
laid her only son. Once more she was
alone, with no one to love, save the child of
him who had betrayed her—Jael Glenn.
Yet was she happier than before. Honor
and wealth were hers, and the memory of
duties faithfully accomplished. She mourn-
ed for him who had been so gentle and kind
to her, and her tears often watered the
grave of their young child; yet peace of
mind was hers, and she wept not as one
without hope. It is only the reproaches of
conscience that make any grief incurable—
all other sorrows s fade away as time grows
older.”
Jael had soothed her ‘father’s dying mo-
ments, had planted fresh flowers upon the
grave of her baby brother,and mingled her
tears with gentle consolations as she lingered
beside the mourner. And now she jour-
neyed to another school. ‘The child, Jael,
had vanished, and in her place stood a maid-
en’ with slight form, and beautiful young
face lit up by large cyes that glowed like
the stars in the clear blue of a winter’s sky.
She was beautiful, fascinating, dazzling, be-
wildering! Wild and untamed as the fiery
leopard, graceful as an antelope, impetuous,
daring and impulsive—such was my Jael at
fifteen. . “ Jesu Maria! shield her well!”
The ‘stage-coach dragged wearily over
hill and dale, now rolling over a smooth and
level road, now plunged deep in mire and
clay.” But Jael heeded none of the discom-
forts of which her fellow passengers were
complaining bitterly. She was thinking of
the home she had left, of her mother, of her
two fathers and her little brother in heaven.
The night was cold, but she did not heed it,
till a large shawl was wrapped around her,
“T was only thinking of my mother. She
is indeed very dear to me.”
“T almost envy you the possession of her.
I lost my own mother before I was old
enough to know her. Let me see—it is
just fifteen years ago. Iwas then but two
weeks old!”
“Tlow strange!” broke involuntarily
from the lips of Jacl.
“What is strange?
mean?”
“O, nothing; only I took you to be sev-
eral years older than I am; but we are, in
reality, of the same age.”
“Ah? I believe I look to be several years
older than I really am. Shall you charge
that to carly maturity of mind or body ?”
“O, mind, of course,” said Jacl, with a
gay laugh, in which the stranger joined.
“We are strangers now, young lady,”
said he, with a demure glance, “and so of
course it is improper for us to converse to-
gether. Therefore, let me introduce to you
Mr. Horace Glenn, late a teacher at Wash-
ington Institute, and soon to oceupy that
honorable place in ‘The Mountain Home.’
Does he mect with your approbation ?”
“Mr. Horace Glenn is very welcome.
Miss Jael Glenn, late of ‘The Abbey,
soon to be a pupil at ‘The Mountain
Ilome,’ grects him.”
“T shall be obliged to make use of your
own words—how strange! This. meeting
must have been foredrdained. Are you a
predestinarian? I certainly shall become
one from this moment, henceforth and for-
ever! Our names are the same, our ages,
and we are traveling to the same place.
There’s witchcraft in it. I wonder if we
are at all related. What was your father’s
name?” °
“T don’t know.
to speak of him.
though.
What do you
My mother never likes
I saw his portrait once,
He had light hair, and blue eyes
like yours; but he was very much hand-
somer than you are.”
“All thanks for. your frankness, my
young friend... What did you say your
name was?”
“Jacl” :
“Jacl? “What a funny name.
gave it to you?”
“My mother.”
“Did she kill Sisera? Or are you going
to give a second edition of that affair?
Pray don’t use a nail as she did.’ I shouldn't
think anything short of a marline-spike
would do for you.”
Who
fade. Alas! that tears’ must’ dim those
eyes; that sorrow and care must leave their
traces upon those fair young brows; that
absence must change those gentle hearts,
and teach them how to forget their early
idols. :
~ Are they forgotten? Never, O! never.
My heart has grown cold and indifferent to
all it once loved. “I see no beauty in the
calm faces around me—no goodness in the
hearts that feign to answer to mine. I pass
on my way unmoved by. any sorrow, un-
touched by any gricf, and many call me
heartless, But when ‘I touch the secret
spring of yonder ebony casket—when that
long glossy eurl is lifted from its satin bed,
and clings to my trembling hand as if it
were a living thing—when I recall the
sweet low Grecian brow which it once
shaded, and remember the dark eyes which
lighted up a well-known face; it is then
that quick warm tears fall from my eyes—
it is then that I live over my past life once
again—that I walk throngh shadowy moon-
light with those who long ago vanished from
my sight, but who are “still dear to me as
murmured her thanks, °
and a friendly voice said,
“Please accept some shelter from this
piercing wind. It is enough to chill one to
the very heart.” :
Jacl turned to look at the speaker. Te
was a very young and very handsome man.
Ifis forehead was high and commanding, his
eyes large, blue, and penetrating, his “hair
of the softest brown. Every movement was
graceful, and his voice was perfect music.
Jael would have accepted his courtesy
with grateful thanks, hadhe been old and
plain, but to such a vision she could only
give a glance of silent admiration. Mer
artist-eye was keenly alive to his beauty—
she marked his straight, Greek profile, his
finely-chiseled lips, and his thin, delicate
nostrils, and determined that she would re-
produce his countenance at some future day.
Tler companion saw the. intense gaze she
bent upon him, and said with a smile, as she
“No, I do not need him. You must
have been dreaming before I spoke to you.
A penny for your thoughts, if they will
keep one warm in such a night.”
“Why so?” :
“O, because you look too grand and fiery
for anything like that. Your nature js
large, and demands large things to deal
with. Nothing short of the marline-spike
would content you.”
“But Sisera’s head would escape, if I
used that. I think I shall content myself
with a shingle-nail, when the time comes.”
“Do you know—don’t be offended, now
—but I shouldn’t wonder at all if you
should do something like that, some time
I mean beeause you seem to be so fiery and
passionate.”
“Never mind—all. that.bear my name
are safe. You will not have to suffer... Be-
sides, I can ‘control ‘my passions, if I wish
to. Sometimes I'give way to them, but it
is not because I am forced to. Passion is
not so strong—there is nothing so strong, iB) as
the human will.”
“Not even thé will of God?”
“Ts not all will an expression of the Di-
vinity ? What do, you mean by God?”
“The Power that’ has placed us here—
that sustains ua in all our sorrows,
have.
deaf that he alw;
pet. Besides, he bad a bad habit of taking
snuff, and I cannot endure that in any one.
“Cannot Will do this?”
“No. Nothing but a sense of a Superior
Being can sustain us. I do not speak from
experience. My parents died before I was
old enough to appreciate them, and since
then I have known no real sorrow. But I
believe in God, and I know this belief will
comfort me in my future life. O, nothing
can tempt me to doubt the existence of a
God.”
Jael
eyes.
“Tacknowledge Will,” said she, at last,
“but nothing higher. What can be high-
er?”
“ God!”
“Pshaw! We mean the same thing, after
all. I have lately lost two very dear
friends. I stood by the grave when they
were laid there, and heard the earth fall on
their coffins. I knew it was shutting me
out from them forever. I knew I should
never meet them again, yet I forced back
my sobs. I did not shed a tear. Was that
Will, or God ? © When I was a child of ten,
I left my mother, to. go among strangers.
At parting, she said to. me, ‘Do not weep,
Jacl. I cannot bear to sce tears in your
eyes.” I did not weep. I was. lifted into
the carriage, and driven away ; yet, though
Ithought my heart would break, I did not
shed a single tear. My Will has, been
gazed, upon him with unbelieving
why should I doubt it in the future? ‘Ah,
itis my sheet anchor, my hope, my faith,
my defense !”
“Jael Glenn, when you was a child at
your mother’s knee, a little, playful, inno-
cent, happy child, did you cherish these
ideas? Did you never knecl there,’ and
say what your proud lips would not utter
now, ‘Our Father who art in heaven” ?
Did you elevate your Will then as you do
now? O, Jael, you worshiped at a differ-
ent altar once.”
“You are right,
a lifetime.
But it was the fonée of
Tt can never come back again
Old things must pass away; bury, them.
then, and turn to the new. There is my
philosophy of. the present, for you. “The
belief of other years has gone forever, with
the happy, childhood that gave birth to it.
I bid them farewell long ago.”
~ “T wish I could have Known: you asa
child. Were you like any one else 2%
“TI believe not,” said Jacl, laughing.
“But I doubt if I should | have pleased
you any better then.”
“ Perhaps you please me too much now—
even against my better judgment.”
“Pshaw!' Pray, let us have a truce to
compliments. They savor too much’ of
every-day life. “I dwell in the ideal, where
nothing of the kind is allowed to enter.”
“ Any one might easily know you as a
dreamer.” * .
“ How, pray 2” ‘
“By your eyes. ‘They have an absent
expression, as if they said, ‘Not at home
to callers’ They are strange eyes—so
weirdlike—just what a what you should
I wonder if you will ever love.”
“0, T-am in love at this very mnoment,
So much for your penetration.” .
“But who have you scen, so early in life ?
Were there any ‘gentlemen at the school
where you have been ?”
“ One, our Preceptor.”
“Ts it him?” :
“Te was old, and gray. --headed, and so
‘ays had to use an ear-trum-
No, he is not the man Lam in love with.”
strong enough for my support heretofore ; .
Eg:
oe SH?