Willy Burke, or, The Irish orphan in America - Digital Repository ...

THE IRISH ORPHAN IN AMERICA. 223
when riches came into his hands he did na forget the
auld Scotch wife, nae mair than anither".
Dawson and the two Burkes were henceforward bound
in the strictest bonds of friendship, and all three made
themselves respected wherever they were known, hy their
scrupulous observance of the Divine virtues inculcated by
the Church as the oracle of truth. After a few years
they commenced business together, under the friendly
auspices of Mr. Talbot, and Dawson married Alice Burke,
then a lovely girl of eighteen. The youngest sister soon
after gave her hand to a wealthy planter from the south
(a connection of Mr. Talbot's), who had been attracted
not less by her modest and retiring virtues than by her
personal charms.
About six years after Mr. Weimar's death, and just
after the marriage of Bridget Burke, Peter happened to
take up a newspaper one evening, but suddenly he let it
fall, exclaiming— " How terrible are thy judgments, O
Lord ! Great art thou in thy mercy and goodness to
those who love and serve thee, but awful thou art, O
God, in chastising the wicked".
" Why, what have you there ?" cried one and another
anxiously.
" Bead for yourself!" he said, laying the paper on the
table.
" Alas !" said Willy, with a deep sigh, when he had
read the paragraph pointed out by Peter— " alas ! poor,
miserable Wilson ! what a fate was yours. This accounts
for our never having heard anything of him since that
terrible deed was done. He had long since entered, it
seems, on a sea-faring life, and his ship was just coming
into the harbour here when fire broke out on board. The