The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-02-01

sick, in the purity nigh empty old
wagon. on an old straw tick. She's
got chills an fever; an the mans hall
dead, bit tryin' TO crawl round an fry
bit O. bacon. think it g ev'ry bite
they've got to eat. No wonder the poor
cuss saws that he's had nothin' but hard
luck for year back. The wust of it,
they've got baby, too!'
''All the time Sam was talkin', moth
er was packin' q basket o vittles; for
we had a plenty. aud good. too. Ma
haly and me took the basket, an went
over to the old wagon. We heerd the
feeble cry of a sickly baby fore we
reached the wagon. Poor little thing.
That was the last cry it made fore its
little sickly life went out.
"'Poor child! Poor little thingr
Mahaly said, an stepped on faster
''The front curtain o the wagon was
open. l elm up on the tongue an
looked in. No mortal human can
know how l felt, when l saw David
Bascom on his knees in the bottom o.
that wagon, tryin' to give Cicely sip
O. black coffee out of an old tin cup!
"Mahaly was climbin' up on the
other side O. me. Ipushed her back.
.Mahaly Doolittlen l cried, .fo. the
Lords sake, come away! come away
Don't look into that wagon; don't,
don'tr
IL tried to hold her, but she broke
away from me with frightened look
in her eyes. In another minnit she saw
all l had seen.
81 run back to our wagon. and told
my news. In little while mother an
me went over to David's wagon. He
was not there, but Mahaly, was sitting
with poor Cicely's white face on heI
breast. Their arms were round each
other, an Mahaly's cheek was pressed
close to Cicely's. The little baby girl
had gone to the One that gathers the
young lambs in His bosom.
II ID said thousand times that ]
never, nerer would forgive Cicely Do
little under any circumstances. Poor
child! My hull heart was full O. pity an
forgiveness when l saw her there in
Mahaly's arms, with the life nearly
gone from her sickly, suffrin' body.
She was so poor an pale an pitiful
lookin'. Not a bit o. the beautiful girl.
ish bloom left, an the child-like beauty
all gone from the young face. But the
old pleadin' look was in the blue eyes,
an the purity hair had lost none O. its
beauty. She put out her hand to me as
l knelt beside her, but drew it away to
stroke Mahaly's bowed head.
"Purty soon David came into the
wagon, the wretchedest lookin' mortal.
l reckon, that ever suffered penance fer
his sins. His wife's hands grasped his:
she tried to speak, but could not; an
so. with her eyes rOvin' from Mahaly to
David, Cicely died.
"When mornin' come, David Bascom
had gone, an from that day to this ]
never heerd tell o. him. Him never
did forgive.
"We buried Cicely an the baby close
to the runnin' stream, under the only
tree fer miles round. Next day we
started on with Mahaly layin' weak an
pallid on a bed in the wagon. She
hadn't spoken word since we left her
with the tears fallin' on Cicely's dead
face, an heerd her CRYING O. mortal
agony then. But at noon she motioned
me toward her an whispered.
go back, go back. Put me by
Cicely! An next day we laid her there,
with look of peace on her face such
as never could have come to it in this
look that comes only to those
who are at their death made perfect in
holinessw-J. L. Harbour, in the Con-
tinent