The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1864-12-29


dreams. She was not. woman who
would readily 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
conscience, and not yielded to its so
tlicitations, if blow, swift and terri
BILE one, had not struck suddenly down
through her rocky natare to the very
quick and core OF her being.
1t was a little past midnight, when,
waking suddenly from her restless
slumber, she saw small figure all in
white standing at the head Of the bed.
What is thatY" she asked, a good
deal startled.
1T is /, mamma" answered Elsie
Drake. "Agnes is real sick; she
groans and groans, and complains ofa
terrible burning pain in her head and
she don't seem to understand when |
talk to her.
All the mother in tho soul Of Mrs.
Maxwell Drake was aroused by this
statement. She hurried out of bed and
into the chamber Of her children; and
there she found the lettlc girl moaning
and tossing upon her pillow, her pulse
throbbng wildly, and dry, fierce
heat parching her small limbs, and,
what was worse than all the rest, the
child, when she looked at her mother
with a strange, wild stare, did no.
know her.
Thors was no time to be lost. Mrs
Drake was certainly not the woman to
do it. Her husband was ont Of town
that night, but she dispatched domes-
tic for the family physician. Ho came
examined her gravoly, and before he
left Mrs Drake know that Agnes, her
first born child, Law in tho grasp ofthat
terrible scourge Of little childron-the
name that sends its shiver TO tho heart
Of every mother--''scarlet fever"
For the next three days and nights,
giving herself no time for sleep or food,
did Mrs. Drake hang over the bedside
of her suffering child the most tender,
the most sklfuI Of nurses. Tho mo-
ther in her was evolved now by the
sight of pain and danger in which her
daughter lay; the means and the cries
Of that sick bed wrung tho soul Of Mrs,
Drake.
Agnes never knew the plying face
which bent over her day and night.
but when the fever ran high and fired
hor brain, she used to babble about
Chistmas gifts, and pretty presents the
girls were to find before it was light,
in their stockings; and then she would
moan and sob pitifully because her
"mothcr had said that she and Agnes
would bot 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 agony of reloorse
and pity-'You shall lave some Christ
, mas presents, my poor, sick, darling
, Only get well, and you shall have The
pretticst that money can buyT
, And tho child would moan out
| "N0, no, | cant find them in my stock
ings mamma said we, shouldn't have
, any"
At last, with the Christmas morning
0 the end came for Agnes Drake. Or
, that sweet face settled darkly the dcatl
: shadow, and the mother behcId it anc
+ was still in her agony, too great fol
tears or words. And as they watched
D about her, tho blue eyes Of little Agnes
: Drake opened for tho last tilnc.
: II nm going to God, who gave us th
| great Christmas Gift; | shall find Hin
= there" she said, and died.
Perhaps it wnsjus that tho sosl o
Mrs, Maxwell Drake needed. Perhaps
lesser would not have soltcned ant
mcIlowcd her nature a5 this great los
}, did. She never forgot, she never for
gave, the denial she made to her chile
that last day when she pleaded for
Christmas giit-sho never will. Bu
T., tho rock was clcaved in twain, an'
I thereafter sho was n wiser, humber
! and u better woman.