The ladies' garland. [volume], November 04, 1826, Image 1

About The ladies' garland. [volume] (Harpers-Ferry, Va. [W. Va.]) 1824-1828

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?OL. 3. HASFERS-rCRRY, VIRGINIA, NOVEMBER 1326.
NO. 39
PUKLIRHKII tvr.lir DATCHDAT rVKSINti,
nv John s. (. w.i.aiipk,
Jit the Office of the I ’irginiit Free
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Postage on all letters MI ST be paid.
REPOSITORY.
FliOM BLACK WOOIl’s M A U A Z 1A h.
■flip. WIDOW YM) UPli SON.
Not a more beautiful vale ever inspired pas
tiu.il poet in Arc.alia.nor did Sicilian shepherds
..fold ever pipe to each other for prize of oaten
i- . il. in a lovelier nook, than where yonder cot
' ige stand-, -haded, hut scarcely sheltered .by a
n-w lureli trees. It is in tintli not a cottage—
led a sideline of turf, part of tbe knt.li adhering
1 i tiie sitie of the mountain. Not another iluell
i**r - ew n snuill as itself—within a mile in any
tlu eeliun. 'i'iiose goats, that seem to w alk u iiere
there i- no looting along the sale o! the elitl. go
oil tlieiiist Ives to he. milked ;it evening,to a house
beyond the lull, without anv barking ting to set
* hem home, " here an, ma; v f-mt path*. bet
di of sheep, except oru1 leading through the
coppice-wood to the distant kiik. The angler
-• ldnm disturbs tiiose shallows, ami the heron
nas mem 10 nimsen, w aicnmg w im motionless
nork all day lung. Vet tin- shii linjr is inhabited,
and lias been so by the same person fora good
many years. Von might look at it fur hours,
and yet see no one so much as moving to tin
door. 111.I a little smoke Inn ers over i!—faint as
mist — and nothing else tells that within is hie
It is inhabited by a widow, who once was the
happiest of wives, and list d lar down the glen,
where it is richly cultivated. In a house astir
with many children. It so happened, that in the
course of nature, without anv extraordinary
bereavements, she- outlived all the household,
except one, on whom f. II the sad.Icst alllietiun
that can helal a human being—the utter loss of
reason. For some years alter the death of all
her other children, and ln-r husband. Ins son
was her support ; and there was no occasion to
pity them m their p.ivertv. w la-re all were poor
Her natural cheerfulness never forsook her ;
and although laden hack in the world, and
obliged in her age to li\c. without n.anv com
forts she once had known, yet all the past gra
dually was solicited into peace, and the widow
and her son were in tin- shieling as happvas am
family m the. parish He worked at all kinds of
woik without, and she sat spinning from morn
intr till night within—a constant occupation,
soothing to one before whose mind past times
might otherwise have come too ofti n. ami that
creates contentment hy its omlisturhed same
ness ami visible progression If not always at
meals,the widow always saw her son for an
hour or two every night, and throughout the
whole sahh tih day. They slept, too, under one
roof, and she liked the stoi' < weather when
the rains were on, for then he lound some inge
nious employment within the shieling, or cheer
ed her with some, hook lent h\ a friend, or with
the Kveh or plaintive nnisie of his native hills.
Sometimes, in her gratitude, she said that she.
was happier now than when slit: had so many
other causes to he so ; and when occasionally
an acijiiaintance dropped in upon her solitude,
her fare welcomed eierv one with a smile that
spoke more of resignation ; nor was she averse
to partake the sociality of the other lints, and
sat sedate among youthful merriment when
summer or winter festival came round, and
poverty rejoiced in the riches of content and
inn occnec.
Hill her trial--, gie.it as they had been. were
not yet over; for this, her only son, was laid
prostrate l.y a lever, and when it left his hodv,
he survived hopelessly stricken in mind, llis
ny es. so etear and inti Hi gent, were now lived ill
i liotey.or rolled aliout unohservant of all objects
living or dead. To linn all weather seemed the
same—and d saltered, he would have lain down,
like a creature void of'understanding, in rain or
on snow, not living aide to find his wav hark for
many paces from the hut. As all thought and
feeling had lelt him, so had speech—all hut of
moaning as of pain or wo, which none Imt a
mother could hear to hear without shudderintr;
Imt she heard it during night as well as dav, and
only soon times lifted up her evi s as in prayer
| to liod. An oiler was made to send him to a
■ place where the alllicted are taken care of. Imt
| she heseeched charity Ihr the first time—such
: alms as would enable her, along with the earn
ings of her w heel, to keep her son m the shu l
i
mg; and the means were given her from many
(|Uarters to do so decently , arid w ith all the com
forts that other eyes observed, but of which tin
poor object himself was insensible and uncoil
scious. Thenceforth, it may almost he said, she
never saw the sun, nor heard the toi rent's roar.
She went not to the. kirk, Imt kept her sabbath
where the poor paralytic lay—and then- she
sungthe lonely psalm.and said the lonely prayer,
unheard in heaven, as many despairing spirits
would have thought. Hut it was not so ; For
m two years there came a meaning to his eyes,
and he found a few words of imperfect speech,
among which was that of ‘ Mother.' Oh ’ how
her heart burned will.in her. In know that hn
faro was at last -recog nised ! To lool that (h i
kiss was returned. and to see tlio first tear that
trickled from eye? that so long had erased to
weep ! Day alter day, the darkness that envoi
od his hrain grew less and less dt op—to her
that hr.wildrrmont now pave the hlessodnoss ot
hope ; for her son now know that he had an
immortal soul, itinl one evening jomod faintly,
and feebly, and erringlv in prayer. A tew
weeks alterw aids, ho remembered only even!*
and scenes long past and distant-—and believed
that his father and all his brothers and sis(. ts
were yet alive. He called upon them, by their
names, to come and kiss them—on them, who
had loop been buried in the dust. l’mt his soul
struggled itself into reason and remembrance—
and lie at last said, “ Mother did some aeeidi nt
hel’al me yesterday at my woik down the gbui .*
1 feel weak, and about to die!" The shadows
of death were indeed around him—hut he lived
to he told much ot what had happened — and
rendered up a perfectly unclouded spirit onto
the merry of his Saviour, llis mother felt that
all her prayers had been granted in that one
boon—and when the eotlia was borne away
from the sideline;.she. remained in it with a
friend, assured that in ibis world there could
for her he no more giief And there, in that
satin* shir Imp,that v ears ha vc gene f\ , *:>•
still lingers, visited as often as she wishes I v
her poor neighbors—for. to the poor, sorrow i*
a sacred thing—w ho. by turns, semi one of their
daughters to stay with her, and cheer a life that
cannot he long, hut that. < ml when it may. will
belaid down without one impious misgiving,
and in the humility of a Christian's t,,ith.
SABINUS AND OI.INDA. — nr i.ou.sm n n
In a fair, rich, and flourishing country, whose
c lifts are washed by the Herman ocean, lived
buiu-, a youth formed by nature to make a con
quest wherever he thought proper ; but the con
stance ot Ins disposition fixed him only with Olinda
lie was indeed supeiior to her in fortune, hut that
defect on her side was so amply supplied by lit;
merit, that none was thought mote worthy of Ins
regard than she. lie loved Jin, he was belovi d bv
her ; anil in a short turn , In joining hands puhliclv
tin y avowed the union of their hearts. Put a!.i
none, however fortunate, howevei liappv, arc ex
empt from the shafts of envy, and the innl-goant
effects of ungovernable appetite. How no d*. , u .a
detestable are they win* have this fury for tin ;•
guide! How certainly will it mUK ad them, an'
plunge them in errors they would have shmirlt:#
al, even in apprehension ' Ar-ana, a lady of man
amiable ipiahties, very nearly allied to Sa'nnus, e. .
highly esteemed by him, imag to 1 herself sl.ghn .
and in '■ am-.!, L‘< ae d. ^ *t»- marriage v.