Page:Peterruggmissing00austrich.djvu/70

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64
PETER RUGG,

there stands a Sewall, and next to him a Dudley. Will none of you speak to me? Or is this a delusion? I see, indeed, many forms of men, and no want of eyes, but of motion, speech and hearing you seem to be destitute. Strange! will no one inform me who has demolished my house?" Then spake a voice from the crowd, but from whom it came I could not discover: "There is nothing strange here but yourself, Mr. Rugg. Time, which destroys and renews all things, has dilapidated your house, and brought us here. You have suffered many years under an illusion. The tempest which you profanely defied at Menotomy has at length subsided; but you will never see home, for your house and wife and neighbors have all disappeared. Your estate, indeed, remains, but no home. You were cut off from the last age, and you never can be fitted to the present. Your home is gone, and you can never have another home in this world."