Love After Marriage; and Other Stories of the HeartHentz, Caroline Lee
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Love After Marriage; and Other Stories of the Heart
Hentz, Caroline Lee
Fiction; Short stories, American
"Never," answered the youth, with energy, "but the arm of my brother
is weak. Let me go with him on his homeward journey, and help him to
support the being he loves. I shall gather wisdom from his lips, and
knowledge from the glimpse of a Christian land. Then shall I be more
worthy to minister to my brethren the word of life."
A sudden thought flashed into the mind of the missionary. "And would
you, Adellan," asked he, "would you indeed wish to visit our land, and
gain instruction in our institutions of learning, that you might
return to enrich your country with the best treasures of our own? You
are very young, and might be spared awhile now, that you may be fitted
for more extensive usefulness hereafter."
Adellan's ardent eye told more expressively than words could utter,
the joy which filled his soul at this proposition. "Too happy to
follow you," cried he; "how can I be sufficiently grateful for an
added blessing?"
Ozora, who had listened to the conversation, held in her own
language, with intense interest, here turned her eyes upon Adellan,
with a look of piercing reproach, and suddenly rising, left the cabin.
"Poor girl!" exclaimed Mary, as Adellan, with a saddened countenance,
followed the steps of Ozora; "how tenderly has she nursed me, and what
is the recompense she meets? We are about to deprive her of the light
that gladdens her existence. She has not yet anchored her hopes on the
Rock of Ages, and where else can the human heart find refuge, when the
wild surges of passion sweep over it!"
"Adellan is in the hands of an all-wise and all-controlling power,"
answered the missionary, thoughtfully; "the tears of Ozora may be
necessary to prove the strength of his resolution; if so, they will
not fall in vain."
A few weeks after, everything being in readiness for the departure of
the missionary and his family, he bade farewell to the Abyssinians,
who crowded round his door to hear his parting words. He took them
with him to the hillside, and, under the shadow of the odoriferous
trees, and the covering of the heavens, he addressed them with a
solemnity and fervour adapted to the august temple that surrounded
him. His deep and sweet-toned voice rolled through the leafy
colonnades and verdant aisles, like the rich notes of an organ in some
ancient cathedral. The Amharic language, soft and musical in itself,
derived new melody from the lips of Mr. M----.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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