The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter: A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
History
The Rangers; or, The Tory's Daughter: A Tale Illustrative of the Revolutionary History of Vermont and the Northern Campaign of 1777
Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
Vermont -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
“Enough, enough!” interrupted the former; “but let me go on. I have
still another and more humiliating duty to perform. Bart,” he continued,
turning, with an agitated countenance, to the young man, “as forsaken
and guideless as you have been, many a parent has had a less deserving
offspring. And had you not done more for yourself than he, who should
have been your protector and guide, has done for you, you had been less
than nothing among men. But listen; for the story of your origin, which,
thus far, has been as a sealed book to you, must now be disclosed Your
father contracted a private, but legal marriage, with a woman, who, as
the world falsely esteemed it, was below him in station; and, in
his pride, he refused to acknowledge her, and, having squandered the
property that should have been applied to her support, absconded from
the country. In after years, however, conscience drove him back, but
only to find her dying of destitution and a broken heart, and to learn
from her last words that the offspring of their connection, a male
infant, had been thrown unacknowledged on the charity of the
public. Aroused by a new sense of duty, he diligently sought for the
child--followed it from its first lodgment to its next asylum in the
city; from that to another in the country; and then, through various
shifts and wanderings, till the trace was lost far in the interior; when
he gave up the search, and again left the country. In the process of
time, he once more returned to New England, in altered circumstances,
and located himself in this settlement, where he soon met with a youth,
whose countenance so strikingly resembled that of his deceased wife,
as to put him instantly on inquiry and research, which, in a few weeks,
resulted in supplying the broken chain of evidence, and in identifying
the youth as his lost son. Bart, you were, and still are, that son.
I was, and still am, that father. Do I die, my much injured son,
acknowledged and forgiven?”
The young man was too deeply affected by his surprise and emotion to
utter a word in reply; but tears, which all the wrongs and hardships he
had endured had failed to wring from him, now stole out on his sunburnt
cheeks, testifying, not only his gratification at the discovery, but
that the slumbering fountain of a naturally generous nature was now
effectually stirred within his bosom. And the speaker, seeming satisfied
with the answer which this evidence implied, soon proceeded:--
“Little more now remains to be imparted. You remember, Harry, that at
the visit at my cabin, to which I have already alluded, I showed you two
small casks, labelled '_Printers Type_,' concealed under a stone in the
cellar?”
“I do; and the impression they caused of the absurdity of bringing that
kind of property into our new settlement,” replied the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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