LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1465, 26 October 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A BRAVE WIFE.

[" Argosy. ”J

( Continued.)

‘Of course —if you do go When we are at a safe distance. I will send them back to the creditors. Dawes has suggested all things, and will act for me here.’ ‘The first thing, R'bort, we must eat some supper; we shall need that. The next, we must prepare and start. The idea of your thinking to leave me ! No. Where you go I go ; I married you, you know, for better or for worse.’ Near the stables when Mr Walden went out, stood his good friend, Quaker Dawes. ‘I am here to help thee, friend. I reckon time hast decided to start.’ « y e s and Delia also. She will ; won’t hear a word to the contrary. We shall have to take both horses How far do you think we can go to night with the children ?’

« Well, I and like Mrs Walden, too! Well. I don’t know hut she's right, though we had laid out to look after her when thee wast gone. Well, there’s no time to lose. I’ll saddle the horses ; the side-saddle on Dolly. I suppose. I’d not try to ride more than fifteen miles or so with the children to-night, friend. Stop somewhere when over the line, and rest a day or two before making up thy mind to anything. Drop me a letter if you two want anything of me, or any information I can give thee.’ ‘ I shall want you to send a trusty messenger to fetch back the horses, Dawes. They belong to my creditors now, you know; not to me ’ ‘All right.’

‘ And if p-o'perity ever comes to me again, I will remember you, the only true friend I have in this town,’ he addeef, with emotion.

While the hq.rses wo"e being saddled, Mrs Walden was arousing and dressing the children.

‘Pear mamma, where can we b« going?’ said Marian, all in wonder. “We need not wake so early as this to go to grandma's. Why do we go in the night ? Bohby. wake nn ?we are going out in the night. I think it’s to grandma’s.’ ‘iS'ever mind, dear, where it is. I tell you papa and 1 are going to toke you on a little journey. You must not talk; it would hinder time. T should be very sorry to leave you and "Bobby behind because you were not ready. ’ the start took plaoo—tho flight by moonlight, El {ah Dawes silently grasped a hand of each. The little girl rode with her father ; Bobby with his mother. Bohby, hardly awake, fell asleep again on her lap. Soon they left the town and suburbs behind them The moon had not long risen. I t came up from behind a hill, beautiful, mysterious ; so near to our world compared with other heavenly bodies, yet so far away ! ‘ That moon has looked upon a great deal worse sor'ow than ours. Robert, ti*e wife, who was bravely hiding Ijcr °'f n dismay and distress. ‘ Hero \v',e are, all of us together ; and wy are not running away as guilty criminals. Ko, no, Robert; 1 can never think that. It is very different. Are we not giving up all to them, except our child r-n ’ ‘ Except mvself.’ he interrupted. ‘True. But you could bring them no benefit. You’re being iu prison would not give them a cent more than they have ; n.o, not though they kept you there for 1 fe. As it is, you are going to vorl£ and them ail in time, xney will heap hard names unon us, and I feel that we ought to have been more careful.’

‘ You take a bright view of the future I Bee that, Delia. ’ he remarked. 4 lt is best you shouid; but you have little idea nf what lies before ns : the hardships, the labor, the iso'ation ’

• Perhaps Go I will lighten it to ns.’ ■ Perhaps. You and 1 have not taken Him much into account yet, I tear.’

Too true : her conscience toM her so. 4 Robert,’ she saul softly, after a little pause, ‘ suppose we begin everything anew? Let us ask our Heavenly Father to take our ca«e into His hands. Let Him map out our way for us, and let us from this night strive to submit ourselves to Him, asking Hon to undertake for us in all things. Our Bible has been too much neglected ; but as I took it up to put in the portmanteau to-night, it came open, and I road, 44 Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall bo added unto you.” ’ There was another pause. 4 That was rather singular, Robert, was it not ?’

4 Aye. ’ The road they had taken lay through a wood : the moonlight came dickering through the green branches. From the heart of the trees beyond the voice of some strange night bird reached them.

4 You are right, Delia,’ Robert Walden replied, in a subdued tone. 4 The world, with its pleasures and its cares, has deluded us into forgetting our dependency. If wo ever have a hearth and table of our own again, we will try to remember these things ’ Clear of the wood again, the two horses trotted on side by side, and the riders were silent until several miles were passed and even then the words spoken were scarcely more an inquiry and the necessary response. Mrs Walden would acknowledge no weariness, she could ride as well as he could, she said ; so all night the travellers bore on with the sleeping children in their arms, and before sunrise they had pissed beyond fear of pursuit. For my story, reader, as I have said, belongs to the olden days in New England. The telegraph wire, the railroad, and even the present quick postal arrangements, were entirely unknown. Had any visionary brain prophetically hinted at either of the two former, it would have been considered almost more preposterous than the tales told of in the

44 goodly time Of good Haroun Alraschid,” Thus a night’s ride bad put the Waldens beyond the tear of pursuit. But that was not all. They had a long, long way to go yet and they wanted breakfa >t Mrs Walden had provided b mntifully, for the necessities of one day at least for her pantry was never empty of goad things, and now, when the sun came up, the/ bivouacked in a wood beside the road, through which a clear brook ran. The horses drank from the stream, and then were fed from the bag of oats wh : ch had been hung to the saddle by good old Elijah Dawes, and the breakfast of bread and butter, cold meat, and cak-s, was spread on a log overlaid with a large napkin.

4 And here’s a bottle of tea,’ said Mrs Wa den. 4 1 d d not forget that. It is cold : but cold tea is bettor th»n none ’

4 Oh how funny this is, mamma!’ said Marian, all in delight. ‘I li<e it a groat deal hett c r than the dining-room at home ’ 4 Oh see ! see, Mary !’ exclaimed little Robert, who had discovered a crimsoncrested woodpecker on a tree close by. The wonders of the wood were better than a show ; and, somehow Mr and M-s Walden took heart from the rapturous mood of their children.

‘ As long as vve have health and strength, Robert, there’s no need to despair,' the whspered. We will not attempt to follow minutely the journey through the unbroken woods, which they soon entered ; hut it were no doubt well worth some little lo~s of gear, aye, some great relinquishment of luxury and fa s hion, such as they were, even in those days, to spend a portion of one’s life in the freshness of the May forest. The soft, pale-green leaves not fully formed, the grace and beauty of the moss of many hues, the varied colors of almost bare branches, from the crimson of the red willow to the chalky white of the lurch; the mottled maple, the brown butternut, budding eaeh in their curious and wonderful way. All these mingled with the dark, rich evergreens, and w r ere the perch and res'ingplace of hundreds of little singers, so full of vitality, of joy, of love, that it would seem an untaught savage might thereby guess at the gracious Heart and loving Hand that planned such happiness and upheld such glorious beauty that led those sweet singers now making the air melodious with their harmony. The May forest was rich with spicy odours of hemlock and lir, with wafts of delicate fragrances from hidden llowers ; for here blossomed, white and showy, the shadow flower, and there trail© I, and hid, and peeped out again from tho dead dry leaves und rfoot, the dear sweet pilgrim flower, lovely enough for Paradise. To the two bright eyed children it seemed a very Eden. They thought papa and mamma had brought them for a treat.

1 The wood is all joyous with life ’ thought Mrs Walden, as they rode on again The brown-red doe yonder was leading her speckled twins ; hares, and prrtridges, and quails, and burrowing wild creatures moved, with but little fear, about the horses’ feet, and the mother’s heart grew braver apd stronger. She would care for he" little ones and succour them, taking lesson from the wild maternal instinct that she witnessed in the forest, and the same Kathor would gather all together under the shadow of His wing, and feed them Dom His open Hand. To he continued .