The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-05-22

that he would rather die outright. A
cripple! MANNED! He thought of Maud
and her strong, bright beauty with q
sickening sensation of unfitness.
lie lay at deaths door for weeks.
Part of the time he was too i'll to recog-
nize any one. Only the tenderest nurs-
ing, the most assiduous care, saved him.
And when he finally opened his eyes to
consciousness; upon what assiduous and
tender nurse do you suppose they
restedp ~ .rT - 81 .ft.~.p
It was incredible. Upon whom but
gentle, care-worn, gizelle-eyed little
lilly z" How on earth" began John,
then dropped off to sleep again. .'I
.. 1t had been almost a year now since he
had seen this dewy woodland rose. He
had only written her one letter mean
while, but that letter had been her
hearts sustenance ever since. She had
laid it away among certain other men,
ories of hers-memories which retained
their sweetness like withered sprigs of
lavender. AS the months sped by she
made up her mind that she would never
see John again-that he had forgotten
her. This was her presentiment. But
she did not blame John because he had
rot proved all that she once hoped he
would that had been her mistake, but
q mistake whi III had, been also her one
Joy and romance. She called him her good
angel. In the dear Hebrew phrase. he
had come to her-as in truth every good
friend comes to us-as an angel of God.
During this weary while her mother
died. lilly found herself without tie
in life. She might come and go as she
pleased. There was q distinct desire in
her loving heart to do the one work for
an unemployed woman just then. But
it was some little time before she
gathered courage TO carry out her wish
to become a hospital nurse. The alarm
ing first step once taken, she went ON
easily enough. And she found an i'm
mense pleasure in thus being of use-as
she proved-and of comfort to many suf-
fering souls. .. .......... o..
The Providence which directs small
matters as well as great, appointed her
duties in a certain ward in certain hos
pital, where she came upon John Leon
ards white face one day, as he lay
stretched on his cot of pain, and she
realized, with a sudden tumultuous
rush of feeling, that it was for her, hui
manly speaking, to tend him back to life.
She felt as though this satisfaction more
than compensated for all that she had
ment-in the past.
There was little romance about Maud
Gale. She made some excuse for break
ing her engagementas soon as she learned
of Johns misfortune. She had little
faith in a one-armed mans being able tC
fight the battles of life successfully. And
success meant to her more than affection
one might fall in love many times over.
John fortunately found that the cure
for his disappointment lay in the nature
of the disappointment itself. $50 weak
Il thing! so weak thingn'
SO we come to the end. Tilly, con-
tinuing her round of blessed duties, was
greatly surprised when John told her
not many months after that, that she
was the one need ofiif, life. She had
buckled down to work. When love
came to her suddenly, its voice was as
voice in a dream. But she believed il
oh, how gladly 1t is so easy for you'll
to be happy, to forget!
Miss Gale might have married II dis
tinguished man, after all. DR.. Leonard
graduated in his profession Immediately
before his marriage to Tilly, and his
name by this time is one that is wei
known among physicians.-Harpe''
Ba2dr. ~