THE BURNING CEDAR.
The cedar tree stood on a slope of the bank, and had cast its fiery rain
over the herbage and brushwood for yards around, leaving them crisped
and dry.
Harrington gathered up a quantity of the seared grass, and heaped a dry
couch upon which Ben laid his charge within the genial heat that came
from the cedar tree. Then they gathered up all the combustible matter
within reach, and began to kindle a fire so near to the place where she
lay that its heat must help to drive back the chill of death if there
was a spark of life yet vital in her bosom.
Harrington knelt beside Mabel. He chafed her hands between his own, and
wrung the water from her long hair. But it all seemed in vain. No color
came to those blue fingers. The purple tinge still lay like the shadow
of violets under the closed eyes,--no motion of the chest--no stir of
the limbs. At last drops of water came oozing through the white lips,
and a scarcely perceptible shiver ran through the limbs.
"It is life!" said Harrington, lifting his radiant face to the boatman.
"Are you sartin it ain't the wind a stirring her gown?" asked Ben,
trembling between anxiety and delight.
"No, no--her chest heaves,--she struggles. It is life, precious, holy
life; God has given her back to us, Ben!"
"I don't know--I ain't quite sartin yet, if she'd only open her eyes, or
lift her hand!" exclaimed the poor fellow.
Here a faint groan broke from the object of his solicitude, and she
began to struggle upon the ground.
"Go," said Harrington, "search out the light we saw--she will need rest
and shelter more than anything now."
"I will, in course I will--only let me be sartin she's coming to."
The good fellow knelt down by Mabel as he spoke, and lifting her hand in
his, laid it to his rough cheek.
"It's alive--it moves like a drenched bird put back in its nest--I'll go
now, Mister James, but d'ye see I felt like thanking the great Admiral
up aloft there, and didn't want no mistake about it."
"Yes, we may well thank God; she lives," said Harrington, looking down
upon Mabel with tears in his eyes.
"Then I _do_ thank God, soul and body, I thanks him," answered Ben,
throwing his clasped hands aloft, "and if I was commander of the
stoutest man-of-war as ever floated, I'd thank him all the same."
With these words Ben disappeared in the undergrowth and proceeded in
search of help.
Admonished by the throes and struggles which proclaimed a painful return
of life, Harrington lifted Mabel to a sitting posture and supported her
there. His heart was wrung by every spasm of anguish that swept over
her; yet at each one, he sent up a brief thanksgiving, for it was a
proof of returning consciousness. Still she looked very deathly, and the
sighs that broke through her pale lips seemed like an echo of some
struggling pang within.
"Mabel," said Harrington, catching his breath as the name escaped his
lips, "Mabel, do you understand?--are you better, Mabel?"
The name once spoken it seemed as if he could not repeat it often
enough, it fell so like music upon his soul.
She struggled faintly--a thrill ran through her frame, and both lips and
eyelids began to quiver.
"Who calls me?" she said, in a whisper. "Who calls and where am I?"
Her eyes were open now, and the refulgence falling around her from the
burning cedar, seemed like the glory of heaven. In that light she saw
only James Harrington bending over her. A smile bright and pure, as if
she had been in truth an angel, stole over her face.
"Yes," she whispered with a sigh of ineffable happiness, "he may call me
Mabel here."
He could not distinguish her words, but knew from the light upon her
face, that she was very happy. His own features grew luminous.
"Mabel, have you ceased to suffer?" he said.
Her eyes were closed in gentle weariness now, but the smile came fresh
upon her features, and she murmured dreamily:
"There is no suffering here--nothing but heaven and our two selves."
Oh, James Harrington, be careful now! You have heard those soft
words--you have drank in the glory of that smile. In all your life what
temptation has equalled this?
For one delirious moment the strong man gave himself up to the joy of
those words: for one moment his hands were uplifted in
thanksgiving--then they were clasped and fell heavily to the earth, and
a flood of bitter, bitter self-reproach flowed silently from his heart.
Mabel moved like a child that had been lulled to rest by the music of a
dear voice. She thirsted for the sound again.
"Did not some one call me Mabel?" she asked.
Harrington was firm now, and he answered calmly:
"Yes, Mrs. Harrington, it was I."
"Mrs. Harrington," muttered Mabel in a troubled tone, "how came that
name here? It is of earth, earthy."
"We are all of earth," answered James, strong in self command. "You have
been ill, Mrs. Harrington, drenched through, and almost drowned--but,
thank God, your life is saved."
"My life is saved, and am I yet of earth? Then what is this light so
heavenly, and yet so false!"
"The storm which overwhelmed your boat struck this light. It is from a
tree smitten with fire."
"And you?" questioned Mabel, but very mournfully. "You are General
Harrington's guest, and I am his wife?"
"Even so, dear lady!"
Mabel turned her head and tears stole softly from beneath her closed
lashes. How could she reconcile herself to life again? To be thus torn
back from a sweet delusion, was more painful than all the pangs she had
suffered.
They were silent now. For one moment they had met, soul to soul, but the
old barriers were fast springing up between them, barriers that made the
hearts of both heavy as death, yet neither would have lifted a hand to
tear them away.
Mabel at last quietly wiped the tears from her eyes and sat up. She
still shivered and her face was pale, but she smiled yet, only the smile
was so touchingly sad.
"I must have been quite gone,--why did you bring me back?" she said.
"Why did we bring you back," repeated Harrington with a sudden outburst
of passion, "why did we bring you back!" He checked himself and went on
more calmly. "It is the duty of every one to save life, Mrs. Harrington,
and to receive it gratefully when, by God's mercy, it is saved."
"I know, I know," she answered, attempting to gather up the tresses of
her hair, "I shall be grateful for this gift of life to-morrow; but
now--indeed I am, very thankful that you saved me."
"It was Ben more than myself--but for him you would have been lost,"
answered Harrington, rejecting her sweet gratitude with stoicism. "He
followed you in his boat through all the storm, and was nearly lost with
you!"
"Poor Ben!" she said, "faithful always, I had not thought of him, though
he saved my life."
Harrington had claimed all her gratitude for Ben with resolute
self-restraint; but when she acknowledged it so kindly, he could not
help feeling somewhat wronged. But against such impulses he had armed
himself, and directly cast them aside.
"How strange everything looks," she said, "are those stars breaking
through between the clouds? They seem very pale and sad, after the light
that dazzled me when I first awoke: then there is a mournful sound
coming through the trees--the waters, I suppose. After all, this earth
does seem very dark and sorrowful, to which you have brought me back."
"You are ill yet--you suffer, perhaps?"
"No, I am only sad!"
And so was he. Her mournful voice--the reluctance with which she took
back the burden of life, pained him, yet he could offer no adequate
consolation. Commonplaces are a mockery with persons who know that there
are thoughts in the depths of the soul, which must not be spoken, though
they color every other thought. Silence or subterfuge is the only refuge
for those who dare not speak frankly.
Thus without a word, for they were too honest for pretence, the two
remained together listening to the low sob of the winds and to the rain
that dripped from the leaves, long after it had ceased to fall from the
clouds. This hush of the storm was oppressive more to Harrington than
the lady. She was languid and dreamy lying upon her couch of dry leaves,
very feeble and weeping quietly without a sob, like a helpless child
who has no language but tears and laughter. In this entire prostration
of the nervous system, she forgot--if she had ever been conscious of the
words that filled him with a tumult of painful feelings.
He moved a little from the place where Mabel lay, and burying his face
in both hands, remained perfectly still, lifting a solemn petition
heavenward from his silent heart, not that she might live--not even of
thanksgiving--but a subdued cry for strength rose up with the might of
his whole being, a cry so ardent and sincere, that its very intensity
kept him still.