Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1881-02-03
RILIY'@ ROSE.
From the Referee. I

From the Referee
Billy's dead and gone 10 gory-so is Billy's sister
There's tale know about them were poet
would tell;
Soft it comes with perfume laden like a breath OF
country air,
Waited down the filthy alley bringing fragrant
odors there.
In that vile and filthy alley, long ago. winter
day,
Dying quick Of want and fever hapless, patient
Billy lay
While beside him his sister in the garrets dis
nal gloon,
Cheering with er gentle presence Billy's pathway
TO the tomb.
Many tale of elf and fairy did she tell the dying
child,
Till his eyes lost half their anguish and her worn
wan features smiled
Tales herself had heard haphazard, caught amid
the Babel roar,
Lsped about by tiny gossips playing at their moth
er's door.
she told
How beyond this dismal alley lay land or shining
gold
Where when all the pain over-where, when
all the tears were she'd
lie would be white -frocked angel, with gold
thing on his head.
Then she told some garbled story of kind-eyed
Savior's love,
HOW llS u Dulll lllle cnlluren great Dlg play
grounds up above,
Where they sang and played at hopscotch and at
horses all the day,
And where beades and policemen never fright
ened them away.
This was Nell's idea of heaven-just bit of what
With little bit invented and little bit inferred;
But her brother lay and listened, and he seemed to
understand,
For he closed his eyes and murmured he could see
the Promised Land.
Yes" lie whispered, Il can see it-l can see it,
Oh, the children look so happy, and they're all so
strong and WELL
! can them there with Jesus-He is playing
with them, too!
Let US run away and join them, ifthere's room for
me and you"
She was eight, this little maiden, and her life had
all been spent
In the garret and the alley, where they starved to
pay the rent;
Where Il drunken fathers curses and q drunken
mothers blows
Drove her forth into the gutter from the days dawn
to its close.
But she knew enough, this outcast, just to tell the
sinking boy,
You must die, before you're able all these bless
lngs to enjoy,
You must die She whispered, Billy, and am
not even i'll!
But I'll come to you, dear brother-yes, promise
that will.
You dying, little brother--you are dying, oh,
fast!
heard father say to mother that he knew you
couldn't last
They will put you i'll Il coffin, then you'll wake and
he up there,
While I'm left alone to suffer, in this garret bleak
and bare"
Yes know it," answered Billy. "Ah but sister,
don't mind
Gentle Jesus will not beat me- He's not cruel or
unknd
u. \
take away
Something, 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
played and ran about,
And the van that took us halted by sweet white
patch of land
Where the fine red blossoms grew dear, half as big
as mothers hand.
Nell asked the good, kind teacher, what they call
such flowers as those,
And he told me, remember, that the pretty name
rose.
I have, never seen them since, dear-how wish
Just to keep and think of you Nell, when I'm up
beyond the sum-
Not word said little Nelly; but at night when {
Billy slept,
On she flung her scanty garments, and then down
the stairs she crcpt;
Through the silent streets of London she ran nim- T
bly, as fawn,
Running OH and running ever till the night had t
changed to dawn. q
When the foggy had risen, and the mist had :. :.
cleared away,
All around her, wrapp'd in snowdrh, there the S
open country lay!
She tired her limbs We're frozen, and the roads
had cut her feet,
But there came no howcry gardens her keen L
hungry eyes to greet. r
She had traced he road by asking-she had learnt a
the way to go; h
She had found the famous meadow; it wrap n
ped in cruel snow; =
Not buttercup daisy, not single verdant blade
Showed its head above its prison. Then she knelt
her down and prayed. h
With her eyes upcast to heaven down she sank 81
upon the ground, Il
And she prayed to God to tell her where the h
might be found :
Then the cold blast numbed her senses and her
sight grew strangely dim, n
And IL sudden, awful tremor seemed to rack her n
every limb. a
oh, "a rose!" she moaned, good Jesus-just ID
rose to take to Bill 70
And as she prayed a chariot came laundering down
And lady sat there toying with red rose, rare
and sweet;
Is she paused she flung it from her. and it fell at
NeIys feet. ~ r
ust word her lord had spoken caused her lady ir
ship TO fret, In
md the rose had been his present. so she flung it Ia
in pet; j. 5ss III
But the poor half blinded Nelly thought it fallen ca
from the skies, "a
md she murmured, "Tllank you, Savior,' as she ~
clasped the dainty prize. M
- g.. . 8. ri u
% that night from out the alley did childs soul -
pass away; IL