The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-12-09
How tho Sunlight Came.


: The sunlight sometimes came intotths
room, for the sunlight was made for the,
poor a. we'll as the rich, and it will pour
in through crazy shutters and over the
bare floors just as cheerily as it filters
through lace curtains and breaks into
golden fragments over velvet carpets
And Gods free air came to the desolate
room as we'll, though when it had crossed
the decayipg roofs and fingered for mo-
ment on the weather. beaten stills it was NO
longer pure.
Do you know what poverty is? A
gaunt, starved woman, with great black
eyes, which had look of hunger and
terror, as if the shadow of fate had clutched
her throat. A bare room-not bare, be-
cause it contained an old stove,
wretched bed, broken chair, a bench,
and-but nothing more. The gaunt,
starved,face woman had bread to eat
bread and nothing else. A bare room
bread and water. That is poverty. That
is what brings to the heart that feeling of
loneliness and grim despair which Is
poisoned out of life or qucnched, like q
Pickering light, in the green waters of the
river which crceps softly past the city and
carries every burden of sorrow and woe to
the bosom of the lake.
Why did this woman live? Had life
one charm for her? Perhaps she asked
herself these questions rs she sat with her
face in her hands and looked out upon the
cold, cherries day. There were no tears
in her great black eyss-only such look
Of woe and despair that the world should
have been there to see it and to have it
| painted on their hearts.
"Motherr'
A little, wasted form on the wretched
bed bony hand on the ragged quilt
| a voice which told of hunger and pain and
weary waiting.
She bent over him, and for moment q
mothers love shone in her eyes, and her
wriDkled hand rested on his pale face
with such tenderness as only q mother
has.
Lift me up and let me see the sun.
shinc,' he whispered, trying to put his
arms around her neck.
"There is no sunshine" she whispered
in reply, sob in her throat.
kiss me, mother, and call me when
the sunlight comes again. he said
She knew that he had been dying
for a week-sinking slowly and surely in.
to eternity, but she had no friends to call
in-she could only weep over him and
pray God that she might soon follow
With gasp and sob she pressed hel
lips to his forehead, then turned away to
struggle with her despair and her great
sorrow.
The cloudy, cherries day faded into
dusk. She reused herself for moment
and peered through the gloom to see il
her boy still slept, and then she whispered
with her thoughts again. And such
thoughts!
When the darkness covered the bare
floor as with a mantle, and when she
could no longer see her own poverty, tn.
boy suddenly cried out:
Mother! mother! The sunlight has
comer'
mot yet, dear Ned-not yet! 1t is nigh
now.'
IS But see the sun-it lights all the
room-it blazes into my face!' he called
"Thcre is no sun-it is cold and dark ?
she sobbcd
"And it grows brighter! and I hea
such sweet music! and l see little Tom
my!" he whispered, while through thu
darkness she saw his white face grow "a
diant.
"You are dreaming!' she sobbed.
at was such a bright sun! The musi
was so sweet!' he whispered, clasping he
hand.
lit is dark-it is nightr' abe gasped
but he did not hear
The sunlight had truly come, but It wa
the sunlight-the golden rays retlecte'
from the gates Of heaven, and not the sun
light of earth. The mysterious curtain
hiding the valley of death had lifted TO
his spirit to pass under, and woe had bee
left behind.
And Of her? Ask the shadows of nigh
ASK the river. When they found hi
little dead body she was not there. The
cannot find her. If she is dead God di
not judge her harshly.-Detrost Free Press