LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1950, 25 May 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A TERRIBLE RIDE. Evening set in cold and grey. Until noon the sky had been clear; but as the snn declined a thick, leaden haze had obscured his sickly light, and appearances gave promise of the coldest night of an unusually cold season. The up train on the C Railroad was detained by the immense drifts of snow which had formed upon the lines; and it was past nine o'clock when the puffing locomotive came slowly and laboriously up to the depot at A , tne northern terminus of the route. As Is usual in country places, as well as in those more thickly settled, quite a little empany had assembled in the principal room of the building, to talk over the severe weather, and discuss the probability of the non-arrival of the train that night. With the first sound of the ominous whistle, the narrow door of the depot was crowded with anxious heads, each striving to pierce farther into the darkness than its neighbor. The usual variety of passengers alighted j each one anxious about his or her luggage, and each one particularly certain that it was in just the place where the freight-master protested it was not; but it is with only one of this motley assemblage that we have to do.

She was a young lady, our heroine, and dressed with extreme elegance. Springing hastily to the platform, scarcely touohing the extended hand of the gentlemanly conductor, ehe gazed anxiously around her for a moment, and then made her way to the window of the office, which was pushed back to allow the official within to receive the express boxes, and separate the mails. The man started as her low musical tones fell on his ear.

' Can you tell me the distance to Wolf • burn ?'

' Twelve miles, marm; and no passage there for five days; roads completely blocked! ' and he was turning away.

She put out her hand to stay him. 'No passage ? It eannot be! I must be in Wolf • burn within four hoars, sir 1 My mother is dying there I' ' Sorry—very sorry indeed ! but it is an utter impossibility to think of doing such a thing! Why, marni, the thermometer stands 10 deg. below zero, this very minute, and 'twill be still lower before midnight I' ' I know the cold is iutense ; I dare say the way is replete with danger; but my mother, the mother who brought me into existence, is dying there, and I must go to her!'

The voice of the young girl became choked and broken as she ceased.

' It's a hard case, I must admit; but it's no use to think of attempting to get to Wolfburn to-night—the coach road ia as impassable as the Alps, and the only tract is across the lake ; but neither man nor beast could live on that bleak route half the distance ! lam sorry, marm; but I only speak the truth about it.'

The pale face of the young lady blanched still paler, but her voice was firm. ' Cold and perilous though it b<), I must go to my mother. Were I sick, she would move heaven and earth, but she would stand by my bedside I I cannot let her die, and I eo near her, and yet not in her presence ! I must go, if I go on foot and alone.' ' Rash girl 1 It would be no better than suicide to attempt the passage of the Winnipissengee on such a night as this, even with a strong horse and an experienced guide ; and such cannot be found, who will brave the horrors of the night for love or money.' ' Lady, I will go with you !' and the crowd parted before the tall, finely built young man who came hastily to the side of tho strange girl. 'I am uuknown to you, and my station in life is humble ; bat, if you will trust me, the confidence shall not be misplaced.' He removed the cap from his head, and stood erect and dignified before her—a strikingly handsome youth, clad in a garb of gray. There was the fire of a lofty spirit burning in his deep, hazel eye, and around the classically-carved lips dwelt an expression half stern, half tender The clear blue eyes of the lady met his fixed, yet respectful gaze, searchingly. She put her hands in his.

'God bless you, sir ! There is one true heart in New Hampshire. I will trust you.' An expression of pride and gratitude swept over the young man's faco, and he bent his head low before her as he said—- ' In hali an honr I will return for you,' and with a firm, elastic step he left the depot.

The young lady dropped into a seat by the fire, and, cohering her face with her hands, seemed lost in a painful reverie. Tho listless ' hangers- on ' about the place gathered together in a little knot about the office window —there was a now subject to discuss. ",

' Fool enough is Will Argensen to undertake the crossing of the lake to-night! He'll be frozen stiff, in my opinion, afore the day breaks!' exclaimed an old man, evidently the oracle of the company. 'And the gal ? it's a shame, though, for she's a sweet-lookin' critter! Heaven pity her, and take care of her, for she'll need somebody's care before the night's throegh !' ' She's in good hands, though,' said a third member of the coterie, withdrawing his pipe from his mouth as he spoke, 'for Will's as noble a lad as ever breathed the air of Hampshire. He knows every inch of the Winnie, as well as I know the road to the mill; and his horse is a powerful deal more intelligent than many human folks, anyhow !' 'Argensen will do v?ell enongh if there ain't a squall ; but it strikes me the sky looks rather hazy, and, depend upon it, this lull ain't for nothin'l' said a fourth, peering anxiously out into the darkness ; *and if there should be a squall—then—then—' and the speaker's involuntary shudder finished the sentence. The men drew closer together, as if for mutual protection, and there was silence of a few moments, broken at last by the old man, who had spoken first. ' Only last winter, poor Henry Bleechor was frozon to death on the ahore of Battlesnake Island; and then just a week afterwards, poor Oap'n Deer—been on the lake all his lifetime—got bewildered in the squalls, and died out there all alone in the dark and cold, and his folks to home settin' up to daylight expectin' him! Oh, it was awful—dreadful to think of it! but nothin' to what it would be if a woman—a young, tender, beautiful woman'—a tear wet tho hardy faco of the old mountaineer, and he turned to dry it on his coarse handkerchief.

At this moment the brisk jingle of eleighbells was heard at the door, and before tho eager listeners could spring forward to open it upon the new-comer, Will Argensen entered wrapped up in a buffalo robe. ' I am ready to attend you to Wolfburn, if you still think of going,' he said, addressing the lady. She arose quickly at the sound of his voice, and accepting the large blanket which the ticket-master kindly offered her as a further protection to the inclement weather, she followed her conductor out into the dark, piercing night, and was lifted into the aleigh which awaited them. Argensen wrapped the buffalo closely around her, and attaching the large glass lantern which he carried in his hand to the front part of the cutter, he sprang in. The horse was a large, powerfully-built animal, of a dark iron-grey colour; and his fiery ayes, as woll as his long, slender neck, showed him spirited and strong. The eager crowd of idlers left their warm quarters by the stove, and gatherod around tho sleigh and its occupants, some expostulating on the madness of the twain in setting out on such a night, others wishing them God-speed, and amid the murmured acclamations, they drove off. Half a mile on terra firms, and the horse's feet rang sharp and clear on the Ice of the Wlnnipissengee. The summits of the tali, blue mountains which arose on either tide of our travellers were shrouded in an impenetrable mint, and the light wind which blew was insufficient to break up the clouds of rime that filled the air.

Little or no conversation passed between these two people, so recently thrown together. Argensen was occupied with thoughts of the perilous undertaking before them; the lady, with sad images of her dying mother—dying without a kiss of her only child to smooth her passage through She dark void batween time and eternity! With anxious eye the young mountaineer scanned the thickening air, and the terrible thought would flit across his brain, ' If the squalls should rise!' Nearly four miles of the journey was passed over in safety. They had reached the dreariest part of the road, and the darkness became almost palpable. Mountains dark as Erebus completely walled In the shining track of ice ; and by the pitching of the cutter and the careful progress of the horse, they knew that drifts of snow and bilges of ice obstructed the way. The wind steadily increased, and cut the face like a sharp icicle. The breath of our travellers congealed almost before it left their bodies, and the dark sides of the horsa were covered with a feathery frost. The cold became intense, permeating the thick buffalo skins a 3 if they had been mere cobwebs, and the delicate frame of the young girl was chilled through. Bravely she suppressed the deathly shivers that involuntarily stole over her, but Argensen felt the effect, ond, drawing his arm around her, he said in a low, earnest tone — ' Lady, we are strangers, but it is no time to stand for ceremony when one is freezing. Sit as close to me as possible, and lay your face here upon my breast; the wind is rising to a gale, and the squalls will be upon ua ere long.' With one powerful hand he guided the horse ; with the other one he held close to his side the little, trembling form of his companion ; and the noble grey, as if feeling that everything depended on their reaching the end of their journey before the breaking of the squall over their heads, tore bravely on.

In vain! in vain !in vain 1 The mad wind bore along the ebon clouds with the swiftness of lightning, and scarcely more than five miles of the way were passed ere it burst upon them in all its fury. The dreaded ' white eye' enveloped them. Hail and minuto particles of frozen snow, in thick, continuous sheets, blinded the eyes of the brave Argensen, and shut out the dim. overarching sky. The horse drew up under the lee cf a wooded island, and could be induced to go no further. Argensen clasped both arms around his paralysed companion, and waited the progress of the 3torm. Heavily and more heavily she leaned upon his shoulder, and at length the fatal truth rushed over him with appalling force—the sleep that invariably precedes death by freezing was upon her! He Bprang up wildly. ' For the love of heaven, awake ! Bouse yourself ! To sleep is death!' A faint moan was the only response. He tore off the buffalo robes which enveloped her, and vigorously chafed her cold hands, and breathed upon her icy lips. For a time he feared that he held only death in his arms ; but at last, by the dim light of the lantern, he saw a flush steal over her face, and her eyelids slowly unclosed. ' Is it my mother holding me ?' she said, dreamily; then, as if remembering all, she drew herself away from the arms that supported her. Argensen soothed and encouraged her, until the storm broke and the clouds were swept away. A few faint, struggling stars burst through the billows of vapour, and, like angels' eyes, looked down upon tho wide desert of snow.

Two hours they waited there —two hours of agonising Buspensa —ere the noble horse coulci be made to pursue his way. With more than a brute iustinct he knew the dangers of the way in the thick darkness and storm, and refused to subject his master to greater peril. As the wind sunk to reßt, and the sky became dearer once more, our travellers went on, and after an hours' swift trot they arrived safely at Wolfburn. The neeessary inquiries being made regarding the young lady's mother, Argensen drove her to the house specified, and yielding to the urgent solicitations of his fellow voyageur, he went in with her.

The first question of the afflicted girl was answered in such a manner that the warm blood flushed over her cheek and brow, and a fervent ' Thank God ! ' burst from her lips. ' Mrs Huntington is better, much better,' said the lady whom Miss Huntington addressed as ' aunt;' and Julia—for that was the name of her who had put to such a trial the courage of William Argensen—advanced towards him, and laying both her hands in his, she burst into a flood of tears.

He took both the hands and pressed them to his lips. It was all the reward he aßked —all she sought to give. * # # # *

One year later, and in one of the moat splendid residences in Boston, there was a wedding—the groom waa William Argensen, the bride Julia Huntington. That night of horror had become the parent of a love stronger than death—more enduring than life, and before that love the haughty pride of Julia's mother hwA imlted away like snow before the sunshine. The noble young mountaineer, for the sake of that love, lefs the hills and valleys he loved, and in a celebrated University, his mind, already rich in the royal gifts of Nature's God, became refined in the° flames of heaven-sent knowledge, , i, . Thoy are very happy now In their gorgeous home—that fair young wife and her noble husband ; and often do they bless the fortune that caused them to past that night upon the Winnipissngee. .. .~-Juteei%6