The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-11-20

many such things; but then nobody ever thinks
Of doing them-you know, Eva, nobody does y
| Eva did not speak her eyes were fixed and
thoughtful for few moments
| 81 At any rate" she said " dear cousin. do
love poor Dodo, and be kind to him for my
saken
Il could love anything for your sake, dear
cousin for really think you are the loyeliest
creature that ever saw" And Henrique spoke
with an earnestness that flushed his handsome
face. Eva received it with perfect simplicity,
| without even change of feature; merely say
ing I'm glad you feel so, dear Henrique |
hope you will remember
The dinner-bell put an end to the interview.
st..r.s 0,a.---~ vStu d
Two days .ss..1H - -. y, -. care spd
/ nngusnne parted; anu Eva, who MON ,,ssi
stimulated by the society Of her young cousin,
| to exertions beyond her strength, began to fail
rapidly st. Clare was at last willing to call
in medical advice-a thing from which he had
always shrunk because it was the admission
of an unwelcome truth
But for a day or two Eva was so unwell as
to be confined to the house, and the doctor was
called
Marie St. Clare had taken no notice of the
child's gradually decaying health and strength.
because she was completely absorbed in study
ing out two or three new forms of disease to
which she believed she herself was victim II
was the first principle of Marie's belief that
nobody ever was or could be so great a sufferer
as her@l-and therefore she always repealed
quite Indignantly any suggestion that any one
| around her could be sick She was always
sure, IN such case, that it was nothing but
lazlness, or want of energy; and that if they
had had the suffering she had, they would soon
know the difference
Miss Ophelia had several times tried to ava
ken her maternal fears about Eva, but to nc
avail
II don't see as anything ais the child" she
would say; she runs about, and plays
But she has cough"
Cough you don't need to tell me about a
cough. Pve always been subject to cough all
my days. When | was of Eva's age, they
thought was in consumption. Night after
night Nanny used to sit up with me- Oh
Eva's cough is not anything"
But she gets weak, and is short-breathedn
only hcf sy ss,sh xaHSsJ alhst $780, --A
aBut she sweats so, nights"
| "Well, have, these ten years Very often
night after night, my clothes will be wringing
wet There won't be dry thread in my night.
clothes, and the sheets will be SO that Nanny
has to hang them up to dry Eva doesn't
sweat anything like that"
Miss Ophelia shut her mouth for season
But now that Eva was fairly and visibly pros.
trated, and doctor called Marie all ON sud
den took new turn
| "She knew it, she said "she always felt
| it, that she was destined TO be the most mis-
| cradle of mothers. Here she was with her
wretched health, and her only darling child
going down to the grave before her eycso-and
Marie routed up Nanny, nights and rum
pussed and scolded with more energy than ever
all day, on the strength of this new misery.
my dear Marie don't talk So" said ST.
Clare You ought not to give up the case 80
at Oncen
"You have not mothers feelings St Clare
You never could understand me you don't
now"
"But don't talk so, as if it were a gone
case"
81 can't take it as indifferently NJ you can,
st. Clare. If you don't feel when your only
child is i'm this alarming state, do. It's blow
too much for me- with all was hearing be-
foren
It's true said St Clare, " that Eva is very
delicate, that always knew; and that she has
grown 80 rapidly rs to exhaust her strength
and that her situation in critical But Just now
she is only Frustrated by the heat Of the weather
and by the excitement of her cousins visit and
the exertions she made. The physician says
there is room for hope"
"Well of course, ifyou can look on the bright
side, pray dots mercy If people haven't
sensitive feelings in this world. ! am sure
wish didn't feel as ! dot only makes me
completely wretched ! wish could be as easy
as the rest Of you !"
And the arest of them had good reason TO
breathe the same prayer for Marie paraded her
new misery as the reason and apology for all
sorts ofinilictiOns on every one about her. Every
word that was spoken by anybody, everything
that WAS done or was not done everywhere, was
only new proof that she was surrounded by
ard-hearted, insensble beings, who were I'M
| mindful of her peculiar sorrows. Poor Eva
heard some Of these speeches, and nearly cried
her little eyes out in pity for her mamma. and
in sorrow that she should make her 80 much
| distress.
In week or two, there was great improve
ment of symptoms--One Of those deceitful iulls,
by which her inexorable disease 80 often be-
| guiles the anxious heart, even on the verge OF
| the grave. Eyas step was again in the garden
| in the Charlottesville playedand laughed again
and her father, in transport, declared that
| they should soon have her as hearty as any
body. Mrs 0phelia and the physician alone
felt no encouragement from this Elusive truce
There was one other heart, too, that felt the
same certainty, and that was the little heart OF
Eva. What is it that sometimes speaks IN the
soul so calmly, so clearly that ts earthly time
is short Is it the secret instinct OF decaying
nature. or the souls impulslve throb a. I'M
mortality draws on BE it what 1t may, 1t
rested in the heart Of Eva, calm, sweet pro-
phetic certainty that Heaven was near--caim
as the light of sunset, sweet as the bright stall
ness OF autumn, there her little heart reposed,
only troubled by sorrow for those who loved her
80 dearly !,
For the child, though nursed so tenderly, and
though life was unfolding before her with every
brightness that love and wealth could give, had
no regret for herself in dying -,
In that book which she and her simple old
friend had read no much together, she had seen
and taken 10 her young heart the image OF one
who loved the little child and a. she gazed and
unused. He had ceased To be an image and
picture Of the distant past, and come 10 DE Nv,
ING. all-surrounding reality. Ills love EMBODIED
her childish heart with more than mor.a' 'en-
derness, and it was to Him, she said, she was
going, and TO His home.
But her heart yearncd with sad tenderness
for all that she wss ~ leave behind. ner i"'her
most-for Eva, though she never distinctly
thought no, had an instructive pcrcepuon .na'
she was more in his heart than any other' She
loved her mother because she was No loving y
creature, and all the se'fshneSs tha' '''e "aa