Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 138 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Se ee ——— SS — ES ES ee - =e Se i eee * ; 6 Mrs. Smith, “ that the next time he would take the dogs to bed with him, that they might give the alarm when any one came.” **T should like to see him!” answered Mrs, Hacket, indignantly. ‘The dogs upon my bed, eh? I should like to see who— Good- evening, Mrs. Roberts,” she added, interrupting moment entered the house with her daughter; * how do you do, Miss Marion?’ The customary greetings were now ex- changed on all sides; and, in their eagerness to scrutinize the new dresses of those that ar- rived, one after another, the women entirely overlooked the entrance of Mr. Rawson, who now stood suddenly in their midst, uttering a “riendly salutation. But, merciful Heaven, how he looked! His face was pale, his. cheeks hollow, his. eyes sunken, and his voice faltering, as with his left arm thrust far beneath his waistcoat, he crossed the humble threshold. “Mr, Rawson!” exclaimed all the women, The Border Bandits. brows of the sainted man!” He stood erect, and did not turn nis shameless eyes to the ground, as he met the pure and devout glance | of his affianced bride, who now, for the first time, felt drawn toward him with heartfelt affection; for she, like the rest, believed that | «¢ was excessive zeal in bis pious calling that _ bersel!, and turning to the latter, who at this | bad thus agitatedand changed him. The heart of woman is often won by compassion; and the pale preacher owed to the expression of suffering which marked his features, that which the assiduities and efforts of long months bad been unable to obtain. On this evening, Marion thought, for the first time, that she couid pass her days quietly and contentedly, if not happily, at his side. Rawson, in the meanwhile, had concluded nis prayer with unalterable calmness; bis lips had not trembled as he implored the forgive- ness of the Most High for himself and his hear- ers; his voice had not faltered as he pronounced the word ‘‘Amen!” Now, however, while all around him were still prostrate upon. their almost in the same breath, “are you sick? | knees—now, a sudden tremor darted through what is the matter? you are as pale as death!” ‘You must. be sick,” said Mrs, Roberts, ad- his frame, and he paused for several seconds; for high, high above the waving tops of the vancing towavd him; ‘‘or bas anything hap- oaks, four vultures were sailing over his head pened?” ‘‘No—nothing—I thank you,” replied the toward the north-east. He could not hear the heavy flapping of their wings, yet be knew the preacher, with a friendly smile; ‘‘I heartily | spot to which they were proceeding with their thank you for your sympathy, my honored | necks outstretched, snuffing their prey; he friends and sisters: it is probably nothing but,| knew wnt their meal would be, before the sun the result of fatigue. I come from the northern settlements, and have ridden the whole night | bimeelf. with a violent effort, he thundered through in order. to keep. my word, and be here at the appointed time, It may have been somewhat more than I could endure, for my frame is little accustomed to such toil.” ith tbese words, be advanced toward Marion, reached. her his band, and, as tbe young girl remarked the singular manner in which he held his left arm, and asked him, witb an air of, anxiety, whether any accident had befallen him, the preacher replied: _ “It is a trifle; it willsoon pass over. Last evening, my horse stumbled over a bough that | lay in the path, and threw me. against a tree, | 60 that Lbruised my arm a little. As it was so slight an injury, I paid no attention to it at | _ first; but the night being cold and damp, the limb swelled toward morning, and it is now a little stiff; but, as I said, it will soon pass over.” ‘‘Ab, Mr. Rawson! I bave a most excellent liniment,” said Mrs. Mullins, approaching him, * If you will let me—” “T thank you—I thank you right heartily for all this kindness; but it really is not worth the trouble, No, upon my word, I must—ex- cuse me, Sister Mullins. Even were it more serious, I should be unwilling to detain so many pious and trusting souls an hour longer from their Lord! Let us commence, then, worthy friends; you see in what numbers the believers have assembled to-day. Shall we re- main in the house, or go into the open air? Ha the sake of room, I should prefer the lat- Sate “Jf it will not be.too cold for you?” said Mrs. Roberts, anxiously. ‘‘1t is still damp, and there is a fresh wind blowing.” ‘‘ Be not uneasy on my account,” replied the preacher, pressing her hand. “I labor in the service of the Lord, and in his service we must not be negligent.” All further remonstrance was useless, The little table was carried out under the two mulberry-trees which the farmer, when he cleared the dense forest that surrounded his house Jeft standing, for the sake of their sweet fruit; and, in the course of half an hour, the sbrill, widely-echoing voice of the preacher was sending prayers and words of thanks up toward the pure, blue heavens. And the trees did not fall and crush him! the earth did not swallow up the, hypocrite, as he lifted bis blood-stained hand toward the all-merciful God, and thanked him that. he had blessed his. feeble efforts with his paternal grace, and had assembled his little flock, all bis faithful ones, here beneath the m verdure of the forest! No avenging lt. struck the treacherous liar to the ground, as he prayed for forgiveness for those who bad | neglected this. opportunity to listen to the word | of the Lord, and entreated. that they might | sunk yonder in the west. Then, collecting | forth a loud “ Hallelujah!” as if in wild scorn / ab his own weakness; and the congregation ' Joined im the well-known strain, while amid the swelling tones he recovered bis composure, and gained strength for the conclusion of the service, Durinz this while, the men who had met here did not all appear to join in the worship, for most of them were collected in a group, at a distance of about a hundred and fifty paces _ from the assembly. Among them were Bar- ker, the peddler Godwin, Roberts and Wilson, the latter a young settler on the same stream, but on the opposite side of it. Their conver sation, however, which the peddler had until now for the most part enlivened with com- _ plaints at the dullness of his trade, had stopped for the last few minutes. As the loud-echoing admonitions of the preacher reached their ears, ' Barker, who was in the act of drawing a small whisky-bottle from his pocket, thrust it back again, somewbat abashed. Wilson, however, observed this movement, and grasped after the arm that was withdrawing the enticing draught. “Stop, there!’ he cried, laughing, ‘‘that is clean against the laws of humanity. You let a man get a sight of the genuine stuff, and then you hide it; that will never do!” ‘But, Wilson, if Rawson should happen to look this way, or even one of the women—” ‘‘ Nonsense! they must have sharp eyes to see what we are doing through the bushes; and even if—the deuce take their clatter—if we came here for that, we might as well be sit- ting with them yonder, under the mulberry- ” ‘But don’t let them see more than is neces- sary,” said Barker. ‘‘My old woman is sing- ing with the rest, and I shouldn’t hear the last of it for a week,” ‘“‘There’s no danger, old man,” replied Wil- son, laughing, as he adroitly turned his back to the devout assembly, and, raising the bottle to his lips, gazed at the clear, blue sky for some moments, with very particular atten- tion, ‘* Come,’’ said Roberts, tilting down the bot- tom of the whisky-bottle, “‘don’t choke your- self; you would like to live in there, I suppose. If you had paid a little more attention to Rawson’s text—to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you ’—it would have been of great service to you.” “Go to the d—] with your text,” answered Wilson, in a tone of vexation as he stretched himself at full length beneath the fir-tree under which he bad until now been seated, and gazed up into its thick branches; ‘‘ we hear nothing, nowadays, in the settlement, but reading of texts, and pointing people to theright way. I zealously strive to put away their sins, and be- | am tired of it. What a capital set of fellows come worthy. to be called servants of God. He stood erect, and no blush tinged his cheek, as a | pleasant. sunbeam. stole through the dense foliage of the underwood; he stood erect, and ! ‘no blush tinged his cheek, as the women said in | we used to have among us!—lads who could not bear a hat upon their heads, nor shoes. on their feet; who camped out in rain and snow, and knew as little when it was Sunday as the deer or the bears. Now, a man must go to whispers around him, “A glory encircles the meeting, not only on Sundays, but on Wednes- SS a a ————————————————— | days and Saturdays too, and sing and pray— and why? Because such a smooth-faced, mealy- moutbed— But, true, he is your son-in-law, Roberts—I forgot that.” ‘‘Fire away!’ cried the old man; “never mind me; perbaps I think a good deal as you do; so, speak out—pull the trigger!” ‘* Well, well—you understand me, I suppose, I don’t like this everlasting ‘ pointing the way’ to Heaven, this fashion? When I bear such preaching, it puts me in mind of the new settler up the river—the Dutchman, who. came here three months ago, He wanted to go from his house down to Stratton’s, and got old Curtis to de- scribe the way to him particularly; and Curt’'s told him, straight enough, that he must keep on exactly westward, through the canebrake,, until he came to the holly-bush thicket, in the clearing; then turn a little to the north, cross the deep slew, where the dry cypresses stand; then go due north as far as the little lake; and from there, leaving the lake to the right, to strike into an almost easterly direction again, otherwise he would come out too high upon the country-road. That was all plain enough, and to hear it, a man would think if was im- possible, after such a description, for a fellow with his five sound senses to miss the way. But the Dutchman had scarcely gone a quarter of the way, when he began to wander around in a circle; and when I went out there in the evening, to shoot a wild turkey, I heard him bellow as soon as I had fired, for he now knew that there was a human being near at hand. I have tried it several times since, myself, and sent people that way. Even with the best will, they always came out, at. the wrong end; and now they want to cut a road through, that they may learn, at last, to march straight.” ‘* It’s something like it,” said Barker, laugh- ing, ‘‘only I don’t believe that that fellow yonder, who rolls his eyes so piously and de- voutly in his pale face, can ever describe the way rightly. But be that as it may, le. doesn’t please me.” ** My wife is crazy after him,” said Roberts.. ‘Tt was only last evening that she declared he was a saint, and that a great and blessed change always came over her heart the mo- ment he set foot inside of the door.” ‘‘ Heaven be gracious to us!” cried Barker, in affright; “the next thing, be will bave a pair of wings, and fly up on the branch of a tree, and eat manna.” ‘* Only look bow the vultures sail by us to- day!” exclaimed Wilson, ‘That is the twenty-third that I have counted since I have been lying here.” “The service seems to be just over,” said the peddler, who for the last few minutes had listened in silence to the conversation, ‘ That. is the concluding hymn—I know it,” “You are musical, then, Godwin?’ said Barker, laughing. ‘‘And why not?” replied the other, some. what piqued. ‘‘I understand the violin, and I can play some fine pieces on the flute, If you don’t believe me, I have it bere.” And, with, these words, be thrust his hand into his deep coat-pocket, and-was about to make good his threat, when Roberts caught him by the arm,, exclaiming :— : ‘For heaven’s sake, man, keep the frightful. instrument in your pocket! What do you think the pious congregation yonder would, say, if we were to strike up our music here? We had euch a joke with Wells, down the river! He now lives retired, and never goes any where, unless he is asked to a log-rolling,. or something of that sort. He stopped at my house one day; he had found a hollow tree full of bees, and he wanted to borrow an ax, as it was too far to go home for one, and—” “But you were going to say something about music,” interrupted the peddler, who was unacquainted with Roberts’s propensity. “Ob, what did you stop him for?’ ex- claimed Barker; ‘‘he was upon the right road. In a minute or two he would have found him- self in New Orleans or New York.” ** How so?’ answered Roberts; ‘‘ that is all nonsense. I was thinking of neither the one nor the other; 1 was going to tell you about Wells. His neighbor had brought with him a sort of long, pointed thing, with holes in it, like a flute, only he put bis mouth to the end, and not to the side. Well, he stayed over night at Smith’s; and as they were going to bed, he takes the—you see be had just come. from Fort Gibson, and wasn’t acquainted with our customs; he had lived a long while, I be— Who the deuce can follow it in| micboo € S) (E(0) (E(0)