San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-02-02

singing in tree near the shop In hap
Ply little MARBLE. The song seemed to
sing into his heart as no music
ever had done before. He ran
to the place behind the door; for
surely he could chalk up something
now, while the music was still quivering
in his ears, and wrote, with considers
bic swiftnes, one line:
A blew burd set on Il cherry.trec lin.
Tim locked at it with proper pride. 1t
was the first he had ever achieved. He
had some dim notions about poetry.
He knew there was word that would
rhyme with "lim" and make pretty
couplet. Was it slimp No; the blue
bird wasn't slim. 1t was plump and
fat. Tins poetry, if he made any,
must square with the truth, and
be as genuine as his tubs and buckets.
He did not rub out that line. 1t was
beautiful in his eyes. He went often to
look at it, and stood contemplating the
effort of his genius for minutes together.
From time to time he chalked up other
lines of the same nature; but none Of
them so much resembled an inspiration
as this about the bluebird. ~
He had ceased to 60 at all to the cot
tage now, and Mrs. Dodd came regular
ly with his meals. She brought him
needful changes of clean linen and at
tended to his bed; and then escaped
quickly from the shop, often without
speaking word to Tim, who seldom
seemed conscious of her presence.
"Poor soul! |" said she to neighbor,
with tear gathering in her kind eyes.
"He always would 60 long piece out
of his way to avoid speaking; and now
there's a crack here" touching he-
forehead, "it's worse than ever. It's
all along of Mandy Holly, they say
she that was Ainslie; and don't dare
to tell him that Mandy has lost her ba-
by and has gone into decline.''
This was late in the fall, when the
weather was growing cold. There was
stove in the shop; but Tim often for
got to light his fire. A hacking cough
came on and he grew singularly feeble.
He had strange night-sweats, that left the
sheets of his bed quite wet; but he suffer-
ed no pain, only once or twice he faint
ed away.
Then Mrs. Dodd demonstrated. She
told him he was very i'll, and begged
that she might take him over to the cot
tage, to nurse him. But he would not
90. He answered gently that he did
not suffer, that he would get strong
again when the spring weather came.
But the little cooper grew weaker every
day, from this painless wasting, and at
last he did not leave his bed. His thin
face rested upon the pillow, and his
wistful eyes looked out beyond the
shows of things. At that time, when
his mind was weakened by this insidious
disease, he heard voices speaking to
him-'Mandy's voice, and others long
dead; and that little elf-iike child figure,
with golden hair, he had seen one sun
ny spring day playing about the shop
door, came peeping in and fitted around
his bed. ,....
On February night, when his
strength was far spent, there came
great fall of snow. Thick flakes drop
ped from the vast, silent sky and muf-
fled up the world. Trackless and pure
and soft as an angels vestment it lay
around the little shop, heaping the win
dow-sill, lining the limbs of trees, pad
ding all things with down, edging all
things with pearl. Tim watched it all
through the night, and the air to his lis
tening ear seemed full of the flutter and
stir of winds. .a.. -.h
Early in the morning, when the gray,
ghostly dawn came to reveal the picture,
he crept feebly out of bed, and with
trembling hand chalked up his last
record in the old place.:
, don't owe any body;
never cheated any body;
Incver meant to harm any body;
And hain't done good to any body.
! nut my trust I'm Him that said the bnnd
shall see and the dumb shall speak
His summons had come. He crawled
back to bed, and they found him, some
hours later, still and lifeless, with a
smile on his face and his hands clasped
in the attitude of prayer.-The Inde-
pendent.
THE recent suit of Ira Melandy OF
Bradford, VT, in which he recovered