The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Young Folks--Vol. I, No. II, February
1865, by Various

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Title: Our Young Folks--Vol. I, No. II, February 1865
An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls

Author: Various

Editor: J. T. Trowbridge
Gail Hamilton
Lucy Larcom

Release Date: January 2, 2010 [EBook #30829]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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OUR YOUNG FOLKS.

_An Illustrated Magazine_

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.

VOL. I. FEBRUARY, 1865. NO. II.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by TICKNOR AND
FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

DAVID MATSON.

Who of my young friends have read the sorrowful story of "Enoch Arden,"
so sweetly and simply told by the great English poet? It is the story of
a man who went to sea, leaving behind a sweet young wife and little
daughter. He was cast away on a desert island, where he remained several
years, when he was discovered, and taken off by a passing vessel. Coming
back to his native town, he found his wife married to an old
playmate,--a good man, rich and honored, and with whom she was living
happily. The poor man, unwilling to cause her pain and perplexity,
resolved not to make himself known to her, and lived and died alone. The
poem has reminded me of a very similar story of my own New England
neighborhood, which I have often heard, and which I will try to tell,
not in poetry, like Alfred Tennyson's, but in my own poor prose. I can
assure my readers that in its main particulars it is a true tale.

One bright summer morning, more than threescore years ago, David Matson,
with his young wife and his two healthy, barefooted boys, stood on the
bank of the river near their dwelling. They were wa