West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1881-03-02
In the Children's Hospital.
From Tennyson's New Volume.l
EMMIE.

him come in at the door,
Fresh from the surgery schools of France aud |
of other lands
Harsh red hair, big voice, big chest, big mer-
CHESS hands!
Wonderful cures had he done, o yes, but they |
said too of him
He was happier using the knife than in try
ing to save the limb,
And that 1 can well believe, for he locke so
coarse and so red,
could think he was one of those who would
break their jests on the dead,
And mangle the living dog that had loved |
him and fawn'd at his knee
Drenched with the hellish oorali-that ever
such things should be!
Here was boy-I am sure that some of our
children would die
But for the voice of Love, and the smile, and
comforting eye
Here was a boy in the ward, every bone SEEM
ed to be out of its place
Caught in a mill and crushed--it was all but
a hopeless case:
And he handled him gently enough; but his
voice and his face were not kind,
And it was but hopeless case, he had seen
it and made up his mind,
And he said to me roughly, "The lad will
mead little more of your care"
IAN the more need" told him, 'to seek the
Lord Jesus in prayer;
They are all his children here, and | pray
for them all as my own"
But he turned to me, "Ah, good woman can
prayer set a broken bone?"
Then he muttered half to himself, but
know thatI heard him say
"All very well-but the good Lord Jesus has
had his day.
Had ? has it come? 1t has only dawn'd. 1t
will come by and by.
o how could 1 serve in;the wards if the hope
of the world were a lie?
How could bear with the sights and the
loathsome smells of disease
But that he said aye do it to me, when We do
it to these?"
so he went. And we past to this ward, where
the younger children are laid:
Here is the cot of our orphan our darling,
our meek little maid;
Empty you see just now! We have lost her
who loved her so much
Patient of pain though as quick as sensitive
plant to the touch
Hers was the prettiest prattle it often moved
me to tears,
Hers was the gratefullest heart l have
found in child of her years.
Nay you remember our Emmie; you used to
send her the flowers;
How she would smile at 'em, play with 'em,
talk to 'em hours after hours!
They that wander at will where the
works of the Lord are reveal'd
Little guess whatioy be got from cow
slip out of field;
Flowers to these 'spirits in prison" are all
they can know of the spring,
They freshen and sweeten the wards like the
watt of an angels wing;
And she lay with a flower in one hand and
her thin hands crost on her breast
Wan, but as pretty as heart could desire, and
we thought hers at rest,
Quietly sleeping-s quiet, our doctor said,
poor little dear,
Nurse must do it tomorrow: she'll never
live thro' it, fear"
wallI'd with our kindly old doctor as far as
the head of the stair,
Then l returned to the ward the child didn't
see was there.
Never since l was nurse had | been SO
SfleVed ana so VeXed!
Emmie had heard him. Softly she call ID from
her cot to the next,
He says | shall never live thro' it, o Annie, |
what shall l do?"
Annie CONSIDERED. "If l." said the little An
ME, "was you,
should cry to the dear Lord Jesus to help
me- for, Emmie, you see,
lVSaIl in the picture there: Little children
70,
lNeaning the print that you gave us, find
that it can always please
our children, the dear Lord Jesus with
children about his knees
y es, and WILL" said Emmie; but then if
call to the Lord,
HOW should he know that it's me? such lot
of beds in the ward!"
mat was a puzzle for Annie. Again she
considered and said:
hlnmle, you put out your arms, and you
leave 'em outside on the bed
Inc Lord has so much to see to but, Emmie,
you tell it him plain
its the little girl with her arms lying on the
counterpane."
sat three nights by the child could not
watch her for four,
MY brain had begun to reel-I felt 1 could do
it no more,
ihaI was my sleeping night, but thought
that it never would pass,
mere was thunder-clap once, and clatter
OF hail on the glass,
ANA there was a phantom cry that T heard