Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-07-24


left; and she gathered him so close to her
breast in her agony that he cried out. In
some way the pain that wrenched her whole
being awed the child, and he cuddled close in
her arms as though seeking shelter fror1
some palpable danger. His cherubic face
grew grave and thoughtful, and his big,
brown eyes stared into space with an express
sion new and strange to them. The room
was very, very still Nothing broke the Vi
lence but his mothers sobs.
She was thinking, with some resentment,
OF the awful cruelty of life; how, in spite of
her patient hopefulness and courageous e.
forts, she must acknowledge herself beaten
and surrender part Of her beloved possessions
She who had nothing but her children
Faster and faster fell her tears over the
baby's yellow hair, until her heart ached
with q pain beside which knife wound
would he q relies
The child's wandering thoughts had taken
shape. Most engruSing mug they have
been to keep him 50 long dlmt. kEs
Mamma, where do the 'pirits liver
an the spirit world-in heaven answered
the sobbing woman
I'D like to 60 there"
She held him tighter in her arms
Mamma, saw a 'pirit a little bit ago.
know it was pirit, cause it made no noise
when it walked and was thin, like 'Ipoke.
Twas a man, tall, with grayhairs ard he
held out his arms for me to goto him; but
didn't want to leave you when You kyz16
I'll go next time he comes"
mo, no. dear; people must die to 60 to the
spirit world
"Die!"
Eyes"
Then he cuddled down into another long
sileLcc. That night he raved in fever; and
the woman who read the future for others.
gropsd blndly with her own destiny Tell-e
ing Of it .aftsrwsfd she aid she felt the
nearness of calamity. but never dreamed
that it would choose the form it did An
indefinable gloom YVES everywhere A
presence strange and terrible was there: but
she believed it to be the shadow of her own
misery, the phantom of sorrow created by
the knowledge that she must surrender her
boys
Three days went by and the clairvoyant
| began to fight death. Bodder was being
taken out Of her arms by the grim angel
hour by hour, but she would not believe it.
She resented every hint of the terrible
eaernys approach with a rage foreign to her
gentle and tipid pature.s She rallied her
forces eboI ha Ar deaed the greatest Of
all conquerors bwnkea courage sthat va al
most superhufhan. The two older bows.
frightened and awed by the strangeness
ana sorrow Of the place, few breath
lessly to do her bidding, or crouched
silently by the baby's bedside bereft Of all
boyish propensties. Night and day the widow
hung over the bedside Of the little sufferer or
carried him in her arms up and down the |
bleak room, with a crazy idea that death |
could not reach him there. The bulvvark of |
her mother love vas s9 mighty would |
surely DISNEY ths greedy Nnemy. III III ]
Only an occasional outsider entered this |
fort Of love held with such deathless courage |
10y these three sorrowfDl souls. The good |
hearted housemaid who served the family |
on the upper floor haltei often as she went |
up and down and asked IL she could do any /
thing; and sick little third-rate actress who |
lived on the topInost hall room, with mother
sicker than herself, came in after the play |
sometimes and brought sach cheer as she |
could to the stricken little family And third,
there was the doctor.
He had been most faithful He was an
elderly man, long accustomed to the ght of
human woe; but the situation touched him.
He, too, was determined to wrest the child
from the cold fingers of death. and he did
his best, but in vain.
He was there when the great conuueror
closed the contest. 1t was O'Clock in tho
morning and the city was still as a church |
yard. 1t was too late to hope, he told the
desperate mother. She had lost the battle.
She heard the verdict in specifies anguish,
and then rousing the two boys she babe them
come and help hold Jasper's soul from death.
In dazel terror they crept from their bed
and clutched at her skirts as she raised the
baby in her arms and sat down before the
red Goals in the CRATE.
The doctor had seen death come in all
forms to the aged and to the young; but this
sight seemed to throttle his strength and
make a coward of him. He saw the CHASTITY
shadow fan upon the bdby's face, and sig
nailed to the mother that the enemy was
close at hand
mamma. il it morning. said the child, in
a clear voice, opening his brown eyes for the
last time Then stretching his arms towards
an invisible presence, his face lighted up
with a sudden glory, and in an instant death
had gained the victory.
Without a sob or groan, without word,
but with look that was not Of the earth, on |
her face, she rose and laid the little
body ON the bed Then with hor syes
liked, her face palid, her lips inimovable, |
she held her arms upwards and groped
IN the air, moving on as though following
and trying to grasp something above her |
head which gust elude 4 her, Tho doctor
started towards her. thinking. that her sor-
row had suddenly driven her mad; but sorfe-
hing checkedhim almost instantly, and he I
'tood watching her. mI.e and spsli-bound.
The two boys crouched oy her empty chair, |
.error-stricken and silent, and the dim light
rom the single gas jet fell on the white face
IF the dead child
Here there she moved. still reaching up
ward, still seeing something no one else saw. | s
At last she walked towards the tall window, c
'tep by step, her arms still held upward, fIkr
lace wrapped in impeEettab!e sIr1s5k. | I
There she stopped, and the love that had do
led death broke the spell that had encom- |,
PASSED her, and in voice whose exquisite |
agony was something fearful. still cropping up | I
ward she cried, See! see! my baby's soul b
S leaving ne forever. All, thero he ,SoeA | n
ny little.Jas,er, my baby boy Seel sol n
,annot reach him. Heis going away from r
ne forever" Then in her supreme anguish !.
he made one more heroic sacrifice. Into her
Door broken heart came the desire to help
md not hinder the fight of this precious soul. | y
" it'll thus wish dominating her grief, she tore |
,pen the window that the child's spirit might | b
,ass without hindrance into the boundess | {
which holds the souls of the dead | h
u It's keeping. linen, with her arms still | n
eaching upward, she fell back UNCONSCIOUS
Did she the childs spirit after 1t had 81
'assed through the evolution Of DEATH n
Did she i'll Mother love is SO infinite, SO
Irvine, SO holy that it might have power in a | r.
Moment like that to what is hidden from y
neaner mortal eyes. ..s s tg3 4
The clairvtyant sign had vanished some 4 :,
ime before the neighbors noticed its absence \
hen they remembered that little white ="
earse had stood before No 207 one day, and o.
$ they went their several ways they con- I
luded that ''sonething must have happened" r
ieantime there had been some changes a
n the square. The woman with the =,
or, who had objected 50 vigorously to any :;
arnish upon the fair fame OF the street. had
Hoped with her husbands business partner. sc
he comsumptive gas collector had solved
he riddle o. life five weeks before, and the | 81
isurance man had gone, under a clou I, 10 a
Europe, without fixing time for his return. | n,
he school teacher remained, but mar =
age engagement with the deaf doctor who D
we'd in the front basement kept her irInd 10 ~
rcoccupicd that she took but little interest | OF
a subject which once commanded her care Il
al attention. "
q Exception Co the Rule That They | n,
Are All UncXPlainable.
lArkansaw Traveller IN