The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1864-12-29

ated, infexible, but for once her faith IN he
own sentiments was shaken. And tina
might, when she retired to rest, Mrs. Drak
was far from comfortable. Tue face of he
child followed her even into her dreams. =
She was not woman who would readil,
acknowledge that she had been in the wrong
1t was very difficult to convince her of it.
And it is extremely doubtful whether Mrs
Drake would not have hardened her con
science. and not yielded to its solicitations
II blow, swift aud terible,one, had no
fstruck suddenly down through her rock,
nature to tho very quick and core Of her be
ing. ,a,g
1t was little past midnight, when wakin,
suddenly from her restlest slumber, she saw
small figure all in white standing at tht
head of the bed.
"What is that p she asked, good dea
j startled. Is taeN ~ r.
lsss'sIs e Ts nsasurns.s = snsr rel Elsie Drake
I Agnes Is real sick; she groans and
groans, and complains Of a terrible burning
pain in her head, and she don't seem to un
derstand when talk to her.
All the mother in, the soul of Mrs. Max
well Drake was aroused by this statement
She hurrisd out of bed and into the chambe,
| of her children, and there she found the lit.
tie girl moaning and tossing upon her pillow,
her pulse throbting wildly, and a dry, fierce
heat parching her small limbs, and, what
was worse than all the rest, the child, when
she looked 1t her mother with strange,
wild stare, did not know her.
There was no time to- be lost. Mrs. Drake
was certainly not the woman'to do il. Her
husband was out of town that night, but she
dispatched domestic for the family physi-
clan He came, examined her gravelv, and
before he left Mrs. Drake knew that Agnes,
her irst-born child. lay in the grasp of that
terrible scourge Of little children the name
that sends i:s shiver to the heart Of every
fever" ,,:f
For the next three days and nights, Civ.
ing herself no time for sleep or food, did
Mrs Drake hang over the bedside 0 { her
suffering child, the most tender, the most
skillful of nurses. The mother in her was
evolved now by the sight Of the pain aud
danger in which her daughter lay; the moans
and the cries'of that sick bed wrung the soul
of Mrs. Drake.
Agnes never knew the pitying face which
bent over her day and night, but when the
fever ran high and fired her brain, she used
to babble about Christmas gifts, ard the
pretty presents the girls were to find before
it was light, in their stockings !; and then she
would moan and sob pitifully because her
I'm ther had said that she and Agnes would
not get any"
And the cry would cut down to the core
of the heart in Mrs Maxwell Drake and she
would bend over her child, saying, in an ag-
ony Of remorse and pity-"You shall have
some Christmas presents, my poor, sick
darling Only get well, and you shall have
the prettiest that money can buy !" 81
And the child would m pan out-s'No. no.
[ can't find them in my stocking--,namms
said we shouldn't have any,
At last, with the Chris tmss morning, the
end came for Agnes Drake. On taat sweet
face settled darkly the death shadow, and
the mother beheld it, and was still in her
agony, too great for tears or words. And
as they watched about her, the blue eyes oil
little Agnes Drake opened for the last time.
Il am going to God. who gave US the
great Christmas Gift; shall find Him
there she said. and-died.
Perhaps il was just this, that soul of
Mrs. Maxwell Drake needed. Perhaps a
lesser would not have softened and mellow
ed her nature as this great loss did. She
never forgot. she never forgave, the denial
she made to her child that last day VIII en-
she pleaded for a Christmas gift never
will, But the rock was cleaved in twain,
and thereafter she was wiser, a humber,
and better woman.