, 1885-08-09
SHEET WILLIAM.


8Nf ~ - - -
kind hearted old saint, who is always
poking about in these places, hal not
spoken TO Lr Hamilton about 1t one
day, as we stood talking in front Of the
Coleman house.
Hy the way, we had been talking
about Lr. hammond's "L.al." He had
remarked that unce said it sold like
hot cakes, and | had replied that like
hot cakes there was indigestion In it.
and wondered why an author who had
such n lund OF experience in ew York
life should have gone all the way to
Colorado to find an impossible character
whom the actual was under his very
eyes.
just then up stepped my old friend in
black and bugles and wanted the doctor
TO go and see a poor dear girl-that was
her hrase-in wentieth street.
There is nothing a doctor has to Eight
more grimly than promis nous sym
pathy, unless he conscientiously believes
that medicine is martyrdom, and as n
rule he doesn I.
| suppose ur. Hamilton would have
smiled afiably and evasiyely and then
forgotten il all il Black and Bugles
hadn said something about a pot of
sweet william And this is the way she
said it:
The poor dear is dying there for
want Of care and food. Shes been liy-
ing for a week of a pot OF sweet william
in the window"
A yellow cab ratified up, and five min
ntes later the doctor and | were sling
ing the mud in Twentieth street.
| spare you the tenement house. This
n is no worse, no better than the rest.
II may have a few more people in It
than the law allow but 1t is built so
that 1t will not fall down.
The rest of it is hackneyed.
God forgive us that the misery OF il
and all the wretched, broken hearts of
1t should be %hackneyed, too.
H..
Real life is always the same old story.
1t doesn I need TO be retouched.
81 know what this is" / said-"deso-
late room. sick woman in bed, deserted
by her lover; no work; careless life i'm
proyident habits; penitent and pitiful
end-regulation style"
But there was the Pot of Sweet Will
iaml Yes, that was not the regulation
styie-certainly not the dietetio style.
True enough, there she was on her
back. But a married m this time,
and there sat her boy husband holding
her thin hand and looking into tho
veins OF il.
He got up like a gaunt wolf, his eye
cleaning, when we came in. Two or
three words OF explanation sat him down
s~ullenly on the foot of the bed.
He was r handsome fellow, not over
%, rugged and sun Drowned. II was
easy to see in his eye and the curve of
his mouth that he did not come out Of
the gutter.
but the woman That ghost there in
the grip of a fever. Evidently she did
not come out of the earth at all-must
hIvo fioated lightly down to it at some
time like a palpitating fog of woman,
to find out what a hell it all was she
had got into. Very white and frail,
with that awful WEAKNESS and sadness
in her big eyes that even the fire of
fever rould not overcome.
Even this is the old story and the old
details.
The cool, quick skill Of the physician
got hold OF her. In a few minutes the
husband had gone for the needed medi-
cine, and the doctor had her alone.
Science was cropping for the mischief. |
walked TO the window and there stood
the pot of et-william-a little bunch
of it in a common eartbern jar, but very
green and fresh and pretty.
III.
Where is Charelyl' she said plain
lively. why does he stay away so
long. lie doesn { know how dreary il is
here. Poor boyl poor boy! o my poor
Charley! Do you think he'll come back
herci Why should he. \ GU don't know
hint will kill him; I'm sure it will.
The Doctor looked sidewiso at me.
knew what he meant-this was fever
talk. Just enough delirium to be dis
connected, but not enough to be false.
II tell you he's hungry; can't YOU sec
without food like n m Why
don I you let me be and attend TO him
/ shall be all right presently. But his
heart is breaking. Is that you, motherl
Lid you bring my sweet William QUILL
have to explain to these gentleman; |
don { want them TO laugh at me. Tell
them ii was a girl S within. 1t grew in
my garden. How cool il was there by
the brook Are We there now Char.
ley, harley-m poor darling, are we
back in the garden
%, l know; put it on the chair here
ly my side and shut the window. the
Dreadful sounds drown the music of the
water.
l made a motion to obey her. The
doctor motioned me to keep still.
't lie said she'd send a doctor and a
nurse; wasn't that what she said O, |
want a drink"
There was a tumhler of tepid Croton
on the mantel. The doctor put tho
mocking fluid to her hot lips as with
one arm he lifted her head tenderly.
Then she fell over in the semi-uncon-
seriousness Of weakness, and he put his
head down on her reast and listened.
Typhoid symptoms, he said, as he
came over to the window, and, lifting
the tower-pot looked at the budding
plant. As he did so the woman muir
INJURED; &c harley don't let them take
the plant away, will you. and don't for
get, lefore you go, TO speak to the chill
dren in the hall tell them there is a sick
lady in here, and they will kill her with
the noise. -
SO far this is the history of a thou.
sand.
But more. II is the poignant, ire
mediable destiny Of life lurking here
that gives us pause. The story, the
story OF II, come back again, old and
worn and sodden with tears.
/ on { you know we got il out of Char
ley Bit hy bit. Oldest scraps, dropped
with quivering chin. ioced together il
was-l tell you, the same old thing. A
threadbsre romance. ike an old gar