|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 7
Once he stumbled over a dead body and found it the corpse of the
invalid in the room above. He seemed to himself to be lifting it
carefully, when a lady, fair and stately, in rich, sweeping garments,
took the burden from his arms, and, sinking with it on the floor,
kissed it tenderly and then bent over it with a look of intense
sorrow.
Farther on he saw Mr. and Mrs. Dubois, with Ad�le, kneeling
imploringly, with terror-stricken faces, before a representation of
the Virgin Mary and her divine boy. Then the glare of light in the
building increased. Rushing to the entrance to look for the cause of
it, he there met Mrs. McNab coming towards him with a wild, disordered
countenance,--her white cotton headgear floating out like a banner to
the breeze,--shaking a brandy bottle in the faces of all she met. He
gained the door and found himself enwrapped in a sheet of flame.
Suddenly the whole scene passed. He woke. A glorious September sun was
irradiating the walls of his bedroom. He heard the movements of the
family below, and rose hastily.
A few moments of thought and prayer sufficed to clear his healthy
brain of the fantastic forms and scenes which had invaded it, and he
was himself again, ready and panting for service.
CHAPTER III.
MR. NORTON.
In order to bring Mr. Norton more distinctly before the reader, it is
necessary to give a few particulars of his previous life.
He was the son of a New England farmer. His father had given him a
good moral and religious training and the usual common school
education, but, being poor and having a large family to provide for,
he had turned him adrift upon the sea of life, to shape his own course
and win his own fortunes. These, in some respects, he was well
calculated to do.
He possessed a frame hardened by labor, and, to a native shrewdness
and self reliance, added traits which threw light and warmth into his
character. His sympathies were easily roused by suffering and want. He
spurned everything mean and ungenerous,--was genial in disposition,
indeed brimming with mirthfulness, and, in every situation, attracted
to himself numerous friends. He was, moreover, an excellent
blacksmith.
After leaving his father's roof, for a half score of years, he was led
into scenes of temptation and danger. But, having passed through
various fortunes, the whispers of the internal monitor, and the voice
of a loving wife, drew him into better and safer paths. He betook
himself unremittingly to the duties of his occupation.
By the influence of early parental training, and the teachings of the
Heavenly Spirit, he was led into a religious life. He dedicated
himself unreservedly to Christ. This introduced him into a new sphere
of effort, one, in which his naturally expansive nature found free
scope. He became an active, devoted, joyous follower of the Great
Master, and, thenceforward, desired nothing so much as to labor in his
service.
About a year after this important change, a circumstance occurred
which altered the course of his outward life.
It happened that a stranger came to pass a night at his, house. During
the conversation of a long winter evening, his curiosity became
greatly excited, in an account, given by his guest, of the Miramichi
region. He was astonished at the moral darkness reigning there. The
place was distant, and, at that time, almost inaccessible to any, save
the strong and hardy. But the light of life ought to be thrown into
that darkness. Who should go as a torch-bearer? The inquiry had
scarcely risen in his breast, before he thought he heard the words
spoken almost audibly, _Thou must go_.
Here, a peculiarity of the good blacksmith must be explained.
Possessed of great practical wisdom and sagacity, he was yet easily
affected by preternatural influences. He was subject to very strong
"impressions of mind", as he called them, by which he was urged to
pursue one course of conduct instead of another; to follow out one
plan of business in preference to another, even when there seemed to
be no apparent reason, why the one course was better than its
alternative. He had sometimes obeyed these impressions, sometimes had
not. But he thought he had found, in the end, that he should have
invariably followed them.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|