The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-09-08
VOLUME o---No. Il.
Death Of Little Nell.
By CHARLES DICKENS.


She was dead. No sleep SO beautiful and
calm, so fair to look upon. She seemed crea-
ture fresh from the hand of God, and waiting
for the breath Of life not one who had lived,
andsufered death. Her couch was dressed
with here and there some winter berries and
green leaves, gathered in spot she had been
used to favor.
"When die, put me near something that
has loved the light, and had the sky above it
always" Those were her words.
She was dead. Dear, gentle, patient Nell
was dead. Her little bird, poor, slight thing
the pressure of a finger would have crushed,
was stirring nimbly in its cage, and the strong
less forever Where were the traces Of her
early cares, her suferings, and fatigtes9 ALI
gone. Sorrow was dead, indeed, in her; but
peace and perfect happiness were born, imaged
in her tranquil beauty and profound repose.
And still her former self lay there unaltered
in this change. Yes! the old freside had smil-
ed upon the sweet face; it had passed, like
dream, through the haunts of misery and care;
at the door of the poor schoolmaster on the
summer evening, before the furnace-fre upon
the cold wet night, at the still bedside of the
dying boy, there had been that same mild and
lovely look So shall we know the angels, in
their majesty, after death.
The old man held one lang1id arm in his,
and the small, light hand folded to his breast
for warmth 1t was the hand she hadstretched
out to him with her last smile; the hand that
had led him on through all their wanderings:
Ever and anon he pressed it to his lips, then
hugged it to his breast, murmuring that it was
warmer now, and, as he said it, he looked in
agony to those who stood around, as if implor-
ing them to help her:
She was dead, and past all help or need of
help. The ancient rooms she had seemed to
fill with life even while her own was waning
fast; the garden she had tended, the eyes she
had gladdened, noseless haunts of many
thoughtless hour, the paths she had trodden, as
it were, but yesterday, could know her no more.
"It is not" said the young scholmaster as he
bent down to kiss her on the cheek, and gave
free vent to his tears, 1T is not in this world
that Heavens Justice ends. Think what it is,
compared with the world to which her young
spirit has winged her early fight, and say, if
one deliberate wish, expressed in solemn tones,
could win her back tc life, which Of US would
utter it?"
She had been dead two days. They were all
about her at the time, knowing that the end
was drawing on. She died soon after daybreak.
They he'd read and talked to her in the early
portion of the night; but as the hours crept on,
She sank to sleep. They could tell by what
she family uttered in her dreams, that they
were of her journeyings with the old man; they
were of no painful scenes, but Of those who
had helped them kindly; for she often said,
"God bless you p' with great fervor.
Waking, she never wandered in her mind
but once, and that was at beautiful music;
which she said was in the air. God knows. It
may have been. Opening her eyes; at last,
from very quiet sleep, she begged that they
would kiss her once again. That done, she
turned to the old man, with lovely smile up
on her face, such, they said, as they had never
seen and could never forget, and clung with
both her arms about his neck. She had never
murmured or complained; !; but, with quiet
mind, and mind quite unaltered, save that
she every day became more earnest and more
grateful to them, faded like the light upon the
summers evening.
The child who had been her friend came
there, almost as soon as it was day, with an
offering of dried flowers, which he begged them
to lay upon her breast. He told them of his
dream again, and that it was of her being re-
stored to them, just as she used to be. He
begged hard to see her, saying that he would be
yeTy Quiet. and they need not fear his being
alarmed, for he had sat alone by his younger
brother all day long when he was dead; and he
felt glad to be so near him. They let him have
his wish and, indeed, he kept his word, and
was in his childish way, a lesson to them all
Up to that time, the old man had not spoken
once, except to her, or stirred from the bedside.
But when he saw her little favorite he was
moved as they had not seen him yet, and made
as though he would have come nearer. Then
pointing to the bed, he burst into tears for the
first time, and those who stood by; knowing
that the sight of the child had done him good,
left them oil alone together.
Soothing him with his artless talk to her, the
child persuaded him to take some rest: to walk
abroad, to do almost as he desired him. And
when the day came on which they must re-
move her, in her earthly shape, from earthly
eyes, he led him away, that he might not know
when she was taken from him. They were to
pather fresh leaves and berries for her bed.
And now the bell, the bell she had so often
heard by night and by day, and listened to with
solemn pleasure, almost as living voice, rung
its remorseless toll for her, so young, so beau
full, so good Decrepi5 age, and vigorous life,
and blooming youth, and helpless infancy, on
crutches, in the pride of health and strength,
in the full blush of promise, in Che mere dawn
of life, gathered round her. Old men were
there, whose eyes were dim and senses failing,
grandmothers who might have died ten years
ago and still have been old, the deaf, the blind,
the lame; the palsied, the living dead, in many
shapes and forms, to see the closing OF that
early grave. .i.
Along the crowded path they bore her now,
pure as the newly-fallen snow that covered 1t,
whose day on earth had been as. tieetlng. I'm
der that porch where she had sat when heaven,
in its mercy, brought her to that peaceful spot,
she passed again, and the old church received
her in its quiet shade.
WoMAS,s BnA1Ns.-The smaller size of wo-
mans brain may be made up for the greater
activity Of nervous fibre, and by its proportion
al size to the body being equal relatively to that
of man. Still it is said, in reply, that men
possess larger and stronger heads for the same
reason that they have stronger Gmbs-viz:.t that