The Daily Herald

The Deserted Children.—" I will record in this place," says Mr. Flint, in his Travels in America, " a narrative that impressed me deeply. It was a fair example of the cases of extreme misery and desolation that are often witnessed on the Mississippi river. In the Sabbath School at New Madrid, we received three children, who were introduced to that place under the following circumstances: A man was descending the river with these three children in his pirogue. He and his children had landed on a desert island on a bitter snowy evening in December. There was but two houses, and these at a little Prairie opposite the island, within a great distance. He wanted more whiskey, although he had been drinking too freely. Against the persuasions of his children, he left them to cross over to these houses and renew his supply. The wind blew high, and the river was rough. Nothing could dissuade him from this dangerous attempt. He told them that he should return that night: he left them in tears, and exposed to the pitiless peltings of the storm, and started for his carouse. The children saw the boat sink before he had half crossed the passage; the man was drowned.—These forlorn beings were left without any other covering than their own scanty ragged dress, for he had taken his blankets with him. They neither had fire nor shelter, and no other food than uncooked pork and corn. It snowed fast, and the night closed over them in this situation. The elder was a girl of six years, but remarkably acute for her age. The next was a girl of four, and the youngest a boy of two. It was affecting to hear her describe her desolation of heart, as she set herself about to examine her resources.—She made them creep together, and draw their feet under their clothes. She covered them with leaves and branches, and thus they passed the first night. In the morning the younger children wept bitterly with cold and hunger. The pork she cut into small pieces. She then persuaded them to run about by setting them the example. Then she made them return to chewing corn and pork. It would seem as if Providence had a special eye to these children, for in the course of the day some Indians landed on the island, and found them, and, as they were coming up to New Madrid, took them with them."