The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870, October 15, 1870, Image 1
VOL. 111.
From the Dublin Irishman.
Faithful Forever-
Fellow-laborer in the vineyard, have you
worked the whole day long?
Have you striv’n to reap the Iftrvest with
a cheerful heart and strong;
Ne’er standing in the furrows while the
burning sun blazed down
On the toilers ranged around you—and
the laughing grapes of brown?
Well it is, if though the turmoil and an
noyance of the day
You have wrought as men should do it,
delving in the sluggish clay;
Never grumbling, never waitiug, while
the golden hour passed,
Till the sun the mountain’ shadows slant
ing on the green sward cast.
Fellow-watcher on the tower, placed
beside the moaning sea,
Have 3’ou watched from night to morn
ing, waiting Ireland's destiny—
While the waves were white and cheer
less, and a blackness filled the sky,
And your brothers by the millions sank
amidst the waves to die ?
Well, no doubt, your meed is glorious if
you braved the wintry night—
Nobler still ’twill be for all who wait the
dawn of Freedom’s light. ?
But for you, who stood so fearless on that
tower by the brine, ,
Mother Ireland pours a blessing on your
head, oh, brother mine!
Fellow-traveller, passing onward o’er the
desert’s burning sand—
You w r ho braved the breath of devils,
marching to the Promised Land;
Hell and furies loosed against you, and
the face of heaven bare,
For your valor, Mother Ireland gives you
presents rich and rare !
Arid for all the blood you offered—for
your suffering and your pain—
She blesses you and toils you go the way
of death again.
Go, and face the devils over—go, and
spurn the proffered gold—
For your Cypress-Queen is wearing still
the crown she wore of old !
Oh! my brothers, if an angel came adown
the starry slopes,
And told you that fulfilment of your
promises and hopes
Depended on the way you kept the plight
you pledged your land—
Would you not be lip and doing with the
strength of heart and hand ?
Yet, the heart that beats within you, and
the conscience that you keep,
Tell you Ireland’s only buried in the arms
of slumber deep;
And that awake she must, but cannot—
and that w hile your hearts are cold
Our Cypress-Queen must ever wear the
crown she wore of old.
M.C.K.
From Lippincott’s Magazine.
WILLIE’S WIFE.
A blustering evening! lam alone.
An old maid, with no husband to destroy
her peace, nor any dreadful annoyances
in the shape of children, with money
enough at interest to keep the wolf from
the door, and a house of her own over
head, might surely expect, after the tea
things were washed and put away, the
fire made, the table drawn close to it, the
lamp close to her elbow, and a book close
to her nose, an old maid thus happily
situated might. I say, in all reason, ex
pect a comfortable time. Alas! far
from it! The wind whistles around the
house with more than ordinary defiance,
and I tremble inwardly; for well do I
know, and well docs it know also, the
cracks and holes in my dilapidated dwell
ing. Here it comes whistling and roar
mg! With a whisk it turns my new wig
askew; with another, the leaves of my
book are fluttering and flapping, as if
they were in league with the boisterous
thing. I adjust my wig and re-find my
place in vain ! There it comes, again
and again ! A rough blast down the
chimney sends the smoke pouring into
the room, scattering a shower of ashes
over my clean white curtains,
I slam my book with a petulant jerk,
take up ray lamp, and start on an indig
nant march up to bed. Creak, creak go
the boards, as if they were possessed.—
The door refuses to open ; I jerk and pull
spasmodically; another blast of wind;
my lamp goes out; still I tug at the
door ; it opens suddenly, and down I g).
Miss Jemima Bloor picks herself up,
minus dignity, temper and a wig. I grope
my way up stairs, stepping lightly on
certain shaking steps, and running a
splinter into my hand from the broken
bannister. I reach my room at last;
must leave the door unlocked because
the lock is out of order ; undress, creep
into bed, and cannot close my eyes, be
cause there is a piece of loose plaster
gaping just above rny head—more to me
than the sword of Damocles.
During the long hours of that sleepless
night I worked myself up to a desperate
resolution. The case, you see, was
grave and urgent; Iran imminent risk
of losing that bland, amiable disposition
which (as I know from the concurrent
testimony of my most discriminating
friends,) is natural to me. The house
shall be thoroughly repaired! Not an
other night will I sleep in it till it is !
I arose at peep of day, and noon found
me domesticated at Mrs. Robinson’s, just
over the way. lam to sleep on the
lounge in her parlor, for the little woman
possesses only two rooms and a kitchen
I immediately assembled all the car
penters, glaziers, tinners, bricklayers,
painters and paper-hangers with whom
our village is blessed. My house is be
ing repaired and renewed outside and in.
I contemplate the changes thus going on
with—well, let the troth be told—with
somewhat mixed emotions. lam slowly
coming to the conclusion that there is no
such thing as perfect happiness i.i this
sublunary sphere. Men are so intense
aggravating, especially carpenters, gla
ziers, tinners, bricklayers, painters, and
paper-hangers.
One afternoen we sat —my hostess and
I—in her little parlor; I at the front
window, looking across the street and
watching that rascally John Stocker, the
carpenter. Good heavens ! There he
sat in mv best room window, swinging
his heels and smoking a pipe—not a
thought of my work in his head ! Now,
the odious creature knows—no one bet
ter—what a hurry I am in and how I
dcstest a pipe. Yet here I may be for
all he cares, sleeping on Mrs. Robinson’s
lounge for a month or two, and all the
time my parlor--Miss Jemima Bluor’s
best room scented with tobacco! I
wonder if the man expects to goto heaven
when he dies ? I wonder if he expects
me to pay him three dollars a day for
smoking his pipe and swinging his heels.
Ah ! there comes Joseph Baldwin just
back from dinner, and—let me see—it’s
twenty-five minutes past two. If I had
my way about women’s rights i’d put
the men out of this world altogether;
that would settle the question. What
are they, after all, but an aggravation, a
marplot, and a general nuisance ?
Now there goes Will WiUy, tramping
l ight over my verbena-bed I Has the
man no eyes in his head? or did his
mother never succeed in beating it into
his dull brain that a verbena bed is not
to be walked on, and that a garden path
is ?
And, now I think of it, it was only
yesterday I found five broken panes in
my up stairs window. Yet that faithless,
good for-notking glazier had sworn to mo
that very morning that he had taken
every sash out, from garret to cellar, and
left all in perlect order. Lords of crea
tion, indeed 1 Lords of fiddlestick !
Wonderful example of intellect—was it
not ?—to take a window-sash out for re-
AUGUSTA, GA., OCTOBER 15, 1870.
pairs, and put it back in perfect
order with five broken panes in it ! If
Miss Jemima Bloor were to sit in a
maiden lady’s best-room window and
smoke a pipe and swing her heels —if
she were to come from dinner to her work
at twenty minutes after two—if she were
to go tramping about on people’s verbena
beds —if she were to declare a window
sash with five broken -panes iti it to be
completely repaired—would she call her
self a lady of creation and a superior in
tellect? I ask the world, would she call
herself a lord or a lady of creation and a
su—
At this point my indignant reflections
were interrupted by a soft splish-splash
and a subdued little flutter of sobs.
My hostess had been knitting, with her
comfortable fat hands, a baby’s hood for
Mrs. Peters, next door.
As I looked up I saw the tears trickle
down on her knitting needles till they
shone and winked at me in an impish
manner.
This little woman is my mental cush
ion—my social rest. Mild, round and
rosy in body and mind, crying is the only
1-ixury she seems thoroughly to enjoy.
The tears roll over her plump cheeks as
if they were used to it, and leave them
plumper than before. The round, light
blue eyes are always ready for a shower,
and look all the rounder and bluer after
it is over. I never kuew her to have an
original idea ; indeed, I think she never
had but one very clear idea of any de
scription. The thought of her whole life
had been “her Willie.” Mrs. Robinson,
although a weak little woman enough,
has had a curious history of her own.
She was an orphan ; had married at
twenty, William Robinson, a sailor of the
town, and had moved into her present
home, with her husband and an old uncle
with whom she had lived before her mar
riage. Tw) months afterward young
William sailed for India The appointed
time for his return had passed ; month
by month went by, and still his wife look
ed for him who never came. After two
years the old uncle was laid at rest, and
the little woman was left quite alone.
How she waited and watched—-watched
all through youth, all through middle
age —waited and watched in vain through
twenty long, long years!
In all that time her one thought when
she rose in the morning was of “Willie;”
her last thought as she laid down at
night was of her lost husband. Nightly,
long attcr vve had gone to bed and she
thought me asleep, her little figure would
steal from the bed-room and kneel in a
spot she had often shown me, where
Willie had said his goodbye, and there
she would pray, in a low, soft voice, the
words always the same : “My God, take
me home to my Willie ; oh, come and
take me! Willie, my husband, come
back and take me !’’ And then she
would creep away to her room as quickly
as she came.
By the fireplace stood Willie’s arm
chair; out in the pantry was Willie’s cup
and saucer, carefully, tenderly washed
every day. Over the mantlepieee hung
Willie’s picture—to her, that of a beau
tiful here; to me, that of a rather com
monplace young man, with blue eyes,
light curling hair, large features, aud a
turned-up nose. I have seen love, de
votion, infatuation, all manner of mis
chief brought on through men; but never,
iu all my experience, had I encountered
such complete merging of one life into
another. To her, Willie seemed to be
not all this world only, but all she dream
ed of in the world to come. Sue did not
think of him as on earth, but as iu
heaven.
The little woman’s mind and heart were
a study to me. I was sitting, with my
hands in my lap, thinking her over, she
still knitting, aud the click of the needles
diversified by the splash, jxsfc audible of
the large, comfortable tears on her neat
black silk, when we were both startled
by a vigorous swing of the gate and a
heavy step on the gravel. A moment
more and the door was flung open, and
suddenly, without word or gesture, a
large, weather beaten, rough-looking man
stood like an apparition before us. A
long, purple scar, crossing his forehead
and check, gave a sinister expression to
©ne eye. lie stared at us, then gazed
about the room for some time without
speaking; at last he fastened his eyes on
Mrs. Robinson. She crept behind me
and whispered, “Please send him away,
Miss Jemima; see how he stares ! Dear,
dear ! what a dreadful man !”
“What do you wish, sir?’’ I inquired,
boldly enough, I think, although quaking
internally, for he had now transferred
his eyes to me.
“Does Mrs. Mary Jane Robinson live
here ?” The harsh voice nude us both
start.
“Yes; I am Mrs. Robinson,” said the
little woman, retreating further behind
me. Suddenly I was seized, chair and
all, and deposited in the middle of the
room ; the next moment the stranger
lifted Mrs. Robinson and gave her a bear
like hug, the little woman struggling and
screaming with all her might. I ran to
the door, intending to call for help; but
the words “Mary, my wife, don’t you
know me ?” struck me dumb. I turned
in amazement. He still held her in his
arms. She had ceased struggling, anti
was looking at him with strange, wild,
shining eyes. Was her mind shaken f
Had the shock been too much for her ?
“Let her go; you will kill her!” I
cried, scarcely knowing what I said.
He put her down gently, still holding
her hand. She stood quite still and
passive, as if frozen, the two fixed bright
eves starting from her death-white face.
The man looked from one to the other in
a frightened way.
“Do you think I’ve frightened her out
of her wits ?” he asked, in an uneasy
whisper, as she stood with her eyes rivet
ed on his face.
“I dare say you have.” I blurted out,
curtly, as I turned to Mrs. Robinson.
“Mary, my dear, what is it ?” taking her
passive hands in mine. She made no
motion, not even shifting her eyes
“Won’t you speak to me, Mary ?” The
eyes turned on me, and slipping her
hands from mine, she groped in the air
like a blind person. It was terrible to
see ! “Mary,” I said, desperately, “it is
your husband come back to you”—any
thing I thought to rouse her; “won’t you
speak to him ?”
“Yes,” said Mr. R.binson, eagerly,
“I am your husband, don’t you know me,
Mary ? Ain’t you glad to see me, my
dear ?” The tears stood in his eyes, and
although they could not soften the look
of the scarred one, still I could see a dim—
a very dim—likeness to the picture over
the mantelpiece, and could no longer
doubt his identity. Deep lines seemed
to grow in the little woman’s face as ho
spoke to her; the very rotindness appear
ed to fall into sharp angles, such as long
years of sorrow had failed to produce.
“Send him away; teli the man to go
away. Cannot he go away ?” she said,
piteously.
“No, my dear,” said her husband : “I
have come to stay, and I thought you’d
be glad to see me.” His rough voice
trembled a little. “Set?, I’ve carried
your picture with me through thick and
thin. When we were shipjwrecked I
thought about it, and tied it up water
proof, so I should have that any way; and
all them long years, when Turn Bright
and Georgo Griffith and me used to sit
in our huts o’uights and talk over our
wives and homes, your picture used to
loJu so hopeful-litfe—just like you used
to look them first two months—i almost
forgot I was a shipwrecked sailor, thou
sands of miles away. Uh, Mary, the
long days and dreary nights, and the
weeks, and the months, and the years all
stretching out, one after the other ! Yes,
child, it was awful dreary-like, and your
picture got dim and blurred, and I grew
gray afore my time; and George,
poor fellow !—he died of a queer kind
of a fever, and we buried him, decent as
we could, under the big palm just above
the hut. Then Tom and I led a rough
kind of life; we got savage-like, and'
didn’t seem to care much abont any
thing.
There he paused, and looked at Mary,
sitting motionless; “I thought, sometimes,
if ever I did get back, it would be kind
o’hard for you to get used to me and
my ways, and I’d feel awkward with
decent folks. It was nigh on twenty
years, I think, before we were found;
but I thought maybe you’d be kind o’glad
to see me, any way.” And the poor fel
low broke down, and looked wistfully at
his wife.
But the little woman’s mind seemed
quite gone. She did not answer him a
word, and had again fallen into that fixed,
unnatural stare. I thought I might
rouse her by calling her thoughts back to
daily things. “Mary, dear,” I said,
“Mr. Robinson must be hungry after his
journey ; won’t you get him some sup
per ?”
She left the room without a word,
moving mechanically, like one in a dream.
Half an hour passed, during which
Robinson had given nie a sketch of his
shipwreck. It was the old story —the
same, with variations, that DeFoe and
Tennyson and Adelaide Proctor have
told. He and his two companions had
been washed on an island, rich in beau
tiful vegetation, but infinitely dreary in
its solitude through the long, long years
of watching to which the castaways were
doomed. He told me how hope had almost
died out, when one morning at sunrise,
they saw a ship steering for the island,
signalled her and were taken on board.—
She was “The Zephyr,” b >und for New
York; and in a little more than two
months she brought them home.
When Robinson had finished his story,
I went out to see what had become of
his wife. She was in the pantry, stand
ing before Willie’s cup, and the blessetl
tears were streaming down her face. As
soon as she saw me she fell on my neck,
sobbing convulsively.
“Must I give him Willie’s cup ? No
lips have touched it since he went away.
How can I give it to that man ?” I let
her cry until she was exhausted; then I
raised her gently and carried her to bed.
“Lie there fifteen minutes, dear; by
that time I shall have supper ready.”
She obe3 T ed as a little child might.
When I went to her, she was white and
still, her lids closed. Alarmed, I called
her hastily by name, and she raised her
eyes to mine. There was still the same
fixed glitter in them. I lifted her from
the bed and arranged her dreS3; she was
quite passive under my hands.
It was a dreary supper, and a more
dreary evening. But at last it came to
an end.
I lay half the night turning restlessly
on my lounge. The moonlight poured
across the room in a broad stream. Wil
lie’s picture looked down at me with an
unearthly expression ; Willie’s arm-chair
took weird forms in the dim light, i
thought over the rapid succession of
events until my head grew dizzy with
thinking. Then the reproachful eyes of
the young Willie seemed staring at me
from the dark corners of the room; and.
mingled with his youthful traits, came
the rough features and sinister eye of
the adult Robinson. Through this chaos
of faces Mary’s too, came up, just as I
had seen her when she stood at the door
of her room, bidding me good-night, her
eyes large with terror, and her hands
stretched out to me for help, alas ! which
bow could I give her ? For was he not
her husband ? And is it not to her hus
band that a womau must cleave ?
Suddenly my heart stood still. r l lie?
little woman herself crept noiselessly
from the bed-room—her face looking
horribly wan in the moonlight—crossed
the pat .or and knelt in the accustomed
ISO. 31.