New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-16
BILLYS ROSE.

Nell:
There's tale know about them were poet wouid
Soft it comes. with perfume laden. like breath OF
Waited down the filthy alley, bringing fragrant
Odors there
In that vile and filthy alley, long ago. one winters
Dying quick of want and fever. baplsss. patient
While beside him sat his sister, in the garrets dis
NAL gloom,
Cheering with her gentle presence Blly's pathway
to the tomb.
Many tale of elf and fairy did she tell the dying
Till his eyes lost half their anguish, and hor worn
wan features smiled;
Tales herself had heard haphazard, caught amid the
Lsped about by tiny gossips playing a their mothers
door.
Then she felt his wasted fingers tighten feeb'y she
How beyond this dismal alley lay land OF SHINING
gold.
Where, when all the pain was everywhere. when
all the tears were she'd al, xo,a
He would be white-frOcked angel, WIN q Soiu
thing on his head.
Then she told some garbled story Of kind-eyed
How He'd built for little children great big play
Where thoy sang and played at hOpscotch and at
And where beadles and policemen never frightened
them away.
This was NelPs idea of heaven-just bit of what
she'd heard
With little bit invented aud little bit inferred
But her brother lay and listened, and he seemed to
understand .
For he closed his and mumured ne c0uld see tne
Promised Land.
" Yesn he whispered. Il can see i'll can 500 it,
Sister Nell;
Oh the children look SO happy, and they're all 50
strong and WE'LL
can them there with Jesus-He Is playing with,
them too!
me and you"
She was eight this little maiden, and her life had all
been spent
In the garnet and the alley where tney starved 10
pay the rent;
Where a drunken fathers curses and drunken
mothers blows
Drove her forth INTO tho gutter from the days dawn
to Its close.
Bnt she knew enOugh this Outcast, just to tell the
" You must die before you're able all these blessings
You must dr. sire whispered, BILLY. and am not
even ill
But iii come to you, dear brother-ycs, promise
that will.
" You are dying. little bTother-you are dying, OBJ
SO fast.
/ heard father say to mother that ne knew You
couldn't last.
They will pnt you in coffin. then you'll wake and
be mp there,
While Pm left alone to suffer- In this garnet bleak
and bare"
" Yes. know it, answered Billy. "Ab, bat sister,
don't mind,
Gentle Jesus will not beat me: He's not cruel or
unknd.
But can't help thinking, Nelly should like TO
sister, that you gave me- might look at
every day.
" In the summer you remember how the Mission
took us out
To the great green lovely meadow. where we played
and ran about.
And the van that took us halted By o sweet white
patch of land.
Where the fine red blossoms grew. dear half as big
asmoIhePs hand.
Nell. asked tho goot kind teacher what they call
such flowers as those.
And he told me, remember. that the pretty name
was rose.
| have never seen them since, dear-how wish that
l had onel
Just to keep and think of you. Nell, when I'm up be-
yOnd tho sum-"
Not word said little Nelly; but at night whom Billy
slept,
On she flung her scanty garments, and then down
the stairs sho crept; .
Through the silent streets OF London she ran Dmby
Running on aud running ever till the night had
changed to dawn.
When the foggy sun had risen. and the mist had
cleared away.
All around her, wrappd in snowdrtt. there the open
country lay
She tired her limbs were ir1zon. ana the roads
had cut her feet,
But there came no hOwery gardens. her Keen hungry
eyes to greet.
She had traced the road By asklnc-she had learnt
the way TO go;
She had found the famous meadow it was wrapped
in cruel snow;
Not buttcrcnp daisy. not single yerlant blade.
Showed lead above It's prison. Then sue knelt
her down and prayed.
With her eyes upcast to heaven down she sank upon
And she prayed 10 God to tell her where the roses
might be found
Then the cold blast numbed heI senses and her sight
grew strangely dim,
And sudden awful tremor seemed to rack her every
limb.
"Oh, q rose ~ she moancd, 90 good Jesus-just rose
to take to Bill"
And as she prayed chariot camc laundering down
the bill,
Aud a lady sat there. toying with red rose, rare
and sweet:
AS she paused she flung it from her, aud it foil at
Nelly's feet.
Just word her lord had spoken caused her lady
ship to feet.
And the rose had been his present. she flung it in
aDet;
But the poor half-blinded Nelly thought it fallen
And sho murmurcd. Thank you, Saviour ~ as she
caspcd the dainty prize.
Lo ! that night from out the alley did child soul
pass away;
From dirt and sin aud misery to where Gods child
rem play.
Loi that night wild force snowstorm burst in fury
DER the land.
And at morn they found Nell frozen, with the red
rose In her hand.
Billy's dead and gono to glory-so Is Billy's sister
Nell;
Am bold to say this happened in the land where
angels dwell e.
That tho children met in heaven, after all their
earthly woes,
And thut Nelly kissed her brother. and sad Billy
here's yuur rOscp