The Humors of Falconbridge: A Collection of Humorous and Every Day ScenesFalconbridge
General
The Humors of Falconbridge: A Collection of Humorous and Every Day Scenes
Falconbridge
American wit and humor
"He gasped, 'Yes, mother, and may the Lord our God in heaven be merciful
to me, thus cut from you and life, mother--'
"'God's will be done,' cried my mother, as the pale face of her darlin'
boy fell upon her hand--he was gone.
"We reached shore, but dar not kindle a light, for fear the Ingins might
be prowlin' about on this side; yes, under this very tree, did we 'camp
that gloomy night. The whole of us, livin', dead, and wounded, lay 'yer,
fearin' even to weep aloud. About midnight, I took the two blacks, and
we dug yon grave and laid poor Ben in it, and the two children by his
side. It war an awful thing--awful to us all; and our sighs and sobs,
mingled with the prayers of the old mother, went to God's footstool, I'm
sure. We made such restin' places as circumstances permitted. I lay
down, but the cries of poor Captain Paul's wife and sister, cries of the
two survivin' children, and moans of us all, made sleep a difficult
affair. By peep of day I went down to the grave, and thar sat the old
mother. She had sat thar the live-long night; the sudden shock had been
too much for her.
"Two days afterwards the grave was opened and enlarged, and received two
more bodies, the wife of Captain Paul, and our kind, good old mother.
Thirty-five years have now passed. Could I leave this place? No; not a
day at a time have I missed seeing the grave, when within miles of it.
No, here must I rest too."
The old man seemed deeply affected. I could not refrain from taking up
the thread of his narrative to inquire what had become of Captain Paul
and his wife's sister.
"Well, poor thing, you see it war natural enough for her to love her
sister's children, and the captain, he couldn't help lovin' her too, for
that. The captain settled down here, about two miles back, and in a few
years the sister-in-law and he war man and wife, and a kind, good old
wife she is too. I've 'camped with 'em ever since, and with 'em I'll
die, and be put thar--thar, to rest in that little mound with the rest.
But I must bide my time, stranger--we must all bide our time. Now,
stranger, I've told you my sad story, I must ax a favor. Seeing as you
are a town-bred person, perhaps a preacher, I want you to kneel down by
that grave and make a prayer. I feel that it is a good thing to pray,
though we woods people know but little about it."
I told him I was not a minister in the common acceptation of the term,
but considering we all are God's ministers that study God's will and our
own duty to man, I could pray, did pray, and left the poor woodsman with
an exalted feeling, I hope, of divine and infinite grace to all who seek
it.
A boat touched Vevay that evening, and I left, deeply impressed with
this little story.
Hereditary Complaints.
Meanness is as natural to some people, as gutta percha beefsteaks in a
cheap boarding-house. Schoodlefaker says he saw a striking instance in
Quincy market last Saturday. An Irish woman came up to a turkey
merchant, and says she--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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