MISS WILMER'S ADVENTURE.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 37, 16 February 1884, Page 4

MISS WILMERS ADVENTURE.

(By Max Adelek.)

!Mr Richakd Smith and Mr Arthur Gibbs were guests at a large party given at the house of Judge Campbell in the town of J Wington. When the evening was half gone, they were standing at the upper end of the drawing-rooM, talking and watching the moving throng beyond them, when Smith suddenly exclaimed : "Who is that insignificant-looking little j woman over there? She has a throng of men about her ; but they certainly can't be attracted by her beauty. She is the plainest woman in the room !' % "Don't you know her?" said Gibbs. "Why, she is the famous Wington heroine !" " Indeed ! a heroine, eh ? Well, I confess my ignorance. Really, I was not aware that this prosy place boasted a heroine." " Well, then, you have to hear a stoi'y of endurance and fortitude which, m hen you look upon that slight figure, seems really incredible." "I am ready to have the tale unfolded, my lad, whenever you are dispobed to oblige me." So the two young men sauntered out to the library, and throwing themselves into easy chairs, Gibbs began : '•You must know, in the first place, that my heroine has held that position just about six years. She came here half-a-dozen years ago from New England in response to a call from the gentlemen who manage the common schools of this country. She was a teacher by profession, and her name was Susan Wilmer." "'Susan, is very mild for a genuine heroine !" " She was placed in charge of a certain little red schoolhouse, away out yonder amon? the hills, near to that small collection of buildings called Maysville. Well, she took the school, and she laboured there for many months, trying to teach the young ideas how to shoot, from very poor soil I imagine, judging from the specimens I have seen of her pupils. But nobody in town cared whether she was successful or not. She did not live in the village, because of the distance, but had taken board at the only respectable farmhouse in the neighbourhood, about a mile and a-half over the mountains. So her arrival did not excite any very great remark in the usually excitable village of Wington, excepting perhaps when she came into church the first Sunday after her arrival, when, of course, all the girls in the building looked her over as she walked up the aisle, and went through the customary mental arithmetic to determine the cost other clothing." "That had to be done, of course," remarked Smith. "But she was plainly dressed, and the young ladies, not having their envy excited, as usual, indulged their contempt for the new comer. Nobody welcomed her, spoke to her, or showed by any sign that they recognised her presence ; and I may say that during the whole of the first six months of her stay here, she was never invited to a house in the town, or was asked to indulge in any of the amusements for which Wington is famous all the year round. She never made a friend or even an acquaintance [among the people. It was a dull and dreary life enough, I think, and I doubt not some of the kinder-hearted among the elder ladies of the town would gladly have shown her some attention; but though polite when addressed, she was reserved and diffident in her manner, and not easily approached." " But you don't seem to be getting on towards the heroics," said Smith, " The farmer with whom she boarded had a son, who — " "Oh, I see!" exclaimed Smith. "The farmer's son is sick ; she nurses him ; a tender passion develops ; he marries her out of gratitude ; the regular thing, you know !"

"Not by any means. This young man was employed as an amanuensis by a gentleman named Wylie, who lived on tho adjoining ostato, and was vory wealthy. Wylie was a man of thirty-five years, a widower, with one child, a little girl of six or seven summers. He was a first-rate fellow, liked and respected by eveiybody throughout this whole region. Wylie wanted to have his little girl instructed in tho rudiments of education ; and, being alone, ho could not very well have a governess in the house. So, upon the recommendation of his secretary, he concluded to have the child attend the red schoolhouse where Miss Wilmer taught. It was his custom to send the child in the carriage, and at tho time of dismissing the scholars to have the man in waiting to convoy Miss Wilmer and her pupil to their respective homes. Well, this arrangement was satisfactory to all parties, and during the summer months everything went on smoothly, and without any cause for complaint nn either side. The child learned rapidly, and conducted herself n'ith about the average propriety. On the Ist or 2nd day of Novcmbor of that year, the school was dismissed at about four o'clock in tho afternoon, but Wylio's man not having arrived with the carriage, Miss Wilmer sat with her solitary scholar in the schoolroom, to wait for him. An hour passed and it began to grow dark, and yet the carriage did not come. The man had gone to town, and was detained by a broken axle. Miss Wilmer concluded not to wait any longer, but to attempt to walk homo, thinking &ho could reach the farmhouse before it was dark, and then have the child sent over to her father's place by one of tho men of the family. " You know how suddenly night comes on among those- mountains ; when the sun has set, the darkness hurries in upon us with a speed of which people who live in a level country have scarcely any conception. Well, Miss Wilmer and the child had gone barely a third of the distance, before it was as black as pitch, and the heavens were &o obscured by huge banks of clouds that not e\enthe faint twinkle of a star served to lighten up their path, darkened as it was, too, by tho network of overhanging brandies of trees, which moaned, and rustled, and creaked in the wind. But the road was an ea^y one, and Miss Wilmer was so thoroughly familiar -with it that t>he strodo along "with confidence, rather regretting that she had undertaken tho task, but determined to persevere, despite tho fearful cries of the child, whom she strove to reassure with words of comfort and encouragement. "The road wound directly round the mountain at a considerable inclination. On one side roee the rocks covered with grey moss and ferns, intermingled with tangled bushes and vines, and strewn with decaying leaves, "\\ hile a few oaks and evergreens grew from the sides, and leaned over the road as if they were trying to peer into the valley below them. On the other side the mountain descended at a considerable declivity and A\as covered with trees, huge boulders?, and a heavy undergrowth, excepting m here, here and there, the bald rock reached down perpendicularly into some chasm, formed centuries ago, when the tirctl earth, weary with the throes of her pristine convulsions, yawned -with her granite lips, and left them unclosed for ever. " Along tins path, then, Miss Wilmer went, trying to keep close in to the mountain's side, and to avoid all possibility of making a misstep over the opposite edge of the road. Once she came to a tree which was prostrated upon the hill above her, and which hung with its branches over the way. She ran against these in the darkness, and, drawing back, attempted to go round the obstacle. She had hold of the child's hand, and her clasp instinctively tightened as she felt the little one slip away from her, and bring her whole weight suddenly to bear on that one arm. ' ' The child gave a piercing scream as she fell, and by the flutter of her white clothing below in the darkness, Miss Wilmer saw that bhe was on tho edge of a precipice upon the mountain. •'To grasp the child's arm with her other hand was the first movement, and with all her strength she endeavoured to lift her up and place her on the road. But the woman's fright had partially unnerved her, and robbed her of much of hey little strength, and lo her dismay she found herself wholly unable to accomjolish her puipose. She perceived with the intuition of desperation that her only hope of supporting the child existed in her lying flat down upon the ground. This she did, and holding on by one of the arms, she gradually worked her other hand up to the body, and caught hold of the dress. But would this bear the weight ? It certainly did not lessen the danger that her strained fingers would gradually lose their power and relax, so that their precious burden would be dashed to pieces in those black and shuddering depths below. Those were the days, you remember, when women and girls wore hoop-skirts. With a desperate effort Miss "Wilmer clutched tho steel springs of the child's skirt, and taking- the four lower springs in her hand, she twisted her arm into them so that they formed a loop around her wrist, and then, feeling that her hold was secure, she dropped the arm of the insensible child, and, tearing off her hood, with her spare hand she bound the strings as well as she could round the wrists of both hands, and between the steel springs of the skirt, so that it could not possibly slip off, the larger part of the weight bearing upon the right arm. " The pain was terrible beyond expression. The sharp steel edges of tho springs, dragged down by the weight of their burden, cut into tho flesh like so many kni f e-blades ; the arm was almost torn from its socket, and the tense muscles seemed to be slowly tearing to pieces with the strain upon them. Bat the brave girl did not flinch ; she lay there with both arms hanging over the edge of the rock in patient agony, waiting for that help which she knew might not come for hours ; indeed, she felt that anyone might drive over her prostrate body in the darkness without her being able to scream or to utter a cry for help. "All kinds of thoughts whirled through her brain— fearful, ludicrous, and sorrowful. She thought of the little peculiarities of each of her scholars, their queer sayings and laughable answers to her questions, and of the times Avhen she had punished them. What would they do with her body when they found her dead ? Suppose she should be buried while not yet dead ! Horrible thought ! Would anybody be sorry she was gone, and shed tears over her ? Bitterly and sadly she could not think of one who would. These and a million other thoughts flashed across the seemingly infinite space of her mind as she lay there, and then her fancies grew wilder and more confused, and brilliant colours danced before her eyes, and she fell into a swoon. " As the evening wore on, and Miss Wilmer failed to return, the farmer with whom she lived became somewhat uneasy, and walked over to Wylie's place to ascertain if she had gone there with her charge. Wylie was surprised and alarmed when the farmer announced his errand, but, as the carriage had not returned, he concluded to #ait for a while, thinking perhaps they had gone to town in the vehicle and were detained. After walk-

ing about uneasily for half-an-hour, he determined to go down the road to the schoolhouse to satisfy himself that no evil had befallen them. Each taking a lantern, he, the farmer, and his son, proceeded out toward the mountain. Each of them had an indefinable fear that some accident had happened, and as they walked silently along the winding road they scrutinised every part of it closely with the flickering light ot their lanterns. "In a short time, Wy lie's secretary caught a glimpse of something white lying in the road ; hurrying toward it, he perceived it to be a woman's dress, and a moment more disclosed the form of Miss Wilmer lying at full length upon the edge of the declivity. The first thought that' flashed through the minds of all was that she had been murdered ; but Wylie almost instantly discovered his child, and with a cry of horror, sprang forward to rescue her. His blood ran cold within his veins as, eagerly seizing her, he looked down into the unfathomable darkness of that awful 1 abyss. To tear away the iron from the bravo arms which it had bruised and torn was the work of an instant, and Wylie, forgetting the insensibility of the noblo woman at his feet, lifted his child in his arms and caressed it with inexpressible tenderness, while the farmer and his son leaned over Miss Wilmcr's prostrate form, and, after binding up the wounds upon the bleeding arm, endeavoured to restore her to consciousness. It now became apparent that a vehicle must be proctu-ed to convey the sufferers to their homes, and Wylie's secretary went back to obtain one. "When the carriage came Miss Wilmer was lifted tenderly and placed in it, and the whde party returned to their homes. All that night Miss Wilmer remained unconscious, and when sho at last awoke she became wildly delirious, and raved about the child, the precipice, and the frightful death which ever seemed impending her. For three day.s the fever raged within her, with not a gleam of returning reason, and it seemed doubtful, indeed, if the dimmed spark of life would not go out entirely. At length, however the crisis passed, and she came out of the delirium proati ated in body and mind, and .scarcely remembering the accident in which fehe had played so valiant a part. You may be sure Wylie did not forget her. He had been thinking about her heroic deed, and he began to comprehend that a woman can posse?s higher and better qualities than personal beauty, and so he called at the fanner's frequently, and the room of the sufferer was lilled with t-he fragrance of the flowers that he brought her. " Mi&s Wilmer knew from whom all these came, but sho was too feeble to do more than simply feel grateful to the giver. But after awhile, when she became strong enough to be carried downstairs, Wylie found it convenient to drop in very often and .sit by her, and to converse in his pleasant, affable way. She "was shy of him at iiist, overawed by a sense of his importance and social supeiiority. But nothing could long withstand his kind sociability, and Miss Wilmer soon found her&elf looking forward to his visits with positive pleasure, and before she entirely recovered she was, I think, in love with him. " But you know the rest ; you know how it always turns out undei such circumstances. Very soon it was announced that Miss "was engaged to bo married to Mr Wylie. The town people had all heard ■ of her adventure, and of her brave conduct, and she was praised warmly for what she had done. But the shrewdest village gossip was hardly prepared for this result ; there were plenty of girls who had been making a dead set at the widower for years, and these with their managing mammas, gave vent to their bitter disappointment in the customary way, by pretending to sneer at his bad taste, and by saying all the hard things they dared of Miss Wilmer. "But this was behind her back. That fine old patriarch, Job, when he recovered his lost property, you remember, was loaded down with presents by his friends who had forgotten him in his adversity. So now evei-ybody suddenly discovered that Mi&s Wilmer was a remarkable young woman, and would prove a valuable acquisition to the select circle. Miss Wilmer understood the precise value of this adulation, and declining all invitations- from the best, as well as the second-best people, busied hei'self preparing for the wedding. " On the appointed day the ceremony was performed in the church in the presence of an admiring, jealous, excited crowd of ladies from the whole country round. That evening Wylie gave a tremendous reception at his house, at which everybody was present, and ho clearly demonstrated that he was the happiest man in the country. " This is the anniversary of their wedding:, and this entertainment is given in their honour. Mrs Wylie still bears upon her arm the indelible marks of the suffering she endured upon the night of that terrible adventure, and if you -will come down stairs I will introduce you to her, and you will observe that she will offer you her left hand; and that's the whole story of the adventure of Miss Wilmer, the Wington heroine."