The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-12-25
"Fatner, ..sy no more, but trust to

AtNor, seJyt5lO InOre, DuC UruSL TO
me; now you shall Sleep.
Thesgirl, shaken by hushed sobs,
turned from the silvery night, and
glided into the house like a shadow.
Ere morning dawned, the soul OF
Elmar Livingstone had gone, where
human eye could not follow its flight.
free of the clogging clay, to its judg-
ment.
And, as ~untraceable, it would seem,
as the spirit OF the man who had
wronged her, yet guarded her youth,
Lena Munroe had also gone with the
night, leaving no token behind her,
bidding no farewell.
Six years later the accident occur.
red on the midnight train which filled
the hospital of$G-with moaninglike
or crushed and shapeless bodies, in
which was left scarcely strength to
sigh.
The nu.ses went from pallet to pal
let, holding bandages, aiding to bind
up great gaping wounds, shrinking
from the sight OF severed arms, but
putting personal feeling away before
the great needs that met them.
One nurse, with sweet, blue eyes
tender and pitiful, gavea low cry at
last, as the surgeon, whose assistant
she was, paused beside a cot on which
a young man lay unconscious.
"4ou know him?" thesurgeon asked
her, regarding her blanched face curl,
ously.s
She bent her head in silence, a sol
bursting from her lips.
Half an hour later he lay there UNI
der her eyes, cold and still, withstrips
OF linen across his bosom, % broken,
bandaged arm, and court plaster hold,
ing together the red edges OF O cash
that ran %perilously near the temple;
and she knelt beside the cot with an
ashen pain. in her young face, as she
stroked back the hair from his fore
head.
SAfter six years." si,e whispered
softly. ooh. my love! after six years,
during which time l have striven to
forget your face, to see it so cold and
whitel But you shall be more tender
ly cared for than though you had a
sister near you; and when you are well
enough to know ire, we part again."
For the crushed and wounded man
was Clarence Livingstone, the kneelit,g
nurse the girl to whom he fad refused
his dying father to make offer Of his
hand-Lena Munroe.
Long days and nights followed each
other, and Clarence walked from stu
por to mad delirium, in which he told
his patient nurse all of which she al
ready knew. and much besides-told
her OF the wealth he had vowed never
to touch, lying in his solicitors hands
for thegirl he could not trdice;e strug-
gle and trial whichhe had gone through
which made her blue eyes dim.
But he said no word of any woman
whose love was his guerdon, and she
was glad that was spared her.
Once in Il midnight hour, when the
ward was silent and the lights lou
about them, he suddenly put forth
his uninjured hand and took one of
hers; bis eyes, brilliant with fever,
Mere fastened on her face.
"My father loved you as a daugh-
ter, he said softly, "and he told me
you loved me: but / did not believe,
and l wanted him to leave me free.
Child, why did You fly from me? Did
you fear | would learn to love yeu?"
SIlG OSIlO fICI ItttC, tlia tCalS llSNNCu
silently down her cheeks.
IL was deliruim, she knew; but she,
who had been unable to forget, re-
membering that long hour i'll the ear
ly night too wildly not to again feel
some OF its pain as she heard him.
1t was weeks later when, after a
long sleep, he Weakened to full con-
seriousness IN morning at day-dawn.
The lights were low, the scene spec
trail, Us his languid eyes turned from
object to object.
At last they rested on the quiet fig
ure of his nurse, asleep in her chair,
and there they fingered.
How sweet and girlish the weary
14lace was, under thestiff cap!-and sad,
too. as though this life was not such
as her heart yearned for. And the
hands lying idly in her lap were sofair
and white and slender, dainty enough
to be deeked with gems, fair enough to
be kissed, but too frail and white for
tearing of linen and lifting of dying
heads, he told himself.
Then q sort of memory came tehim
of those soft fingers on his brow. when
it had seemed burning; of that sweet
face bent over him in his delIrium,
when he had taken it for the face oil
an angel.
He had seen it before, but where?
Perhaps in one of his day dreams.
Now he wouldneyerforget, hetoldhim.
self, as. his own eyes closing, hedropped
off to sleep.
1t was midday when h ewaked again
and found her bending over him, and
this time herecognized her.
'Lenal" he cried, trying to put out
his hand.
But he was too weak. 1t fell on thu
counterpart.
"You know me?" she said softly
turning paler.
"Iknowyou, and Iwantto tellyou,'
he whispered, family, but with a arm
glow in his eyes-"you are an heiress
there is no eedforyo to do this work
My father-"
III know it ALL she broke in; san,
that was why I left Lynn as l did
Did you think / would beggar you
And your father had been kind to me
/ forgave him because he loved me.
will not go back; | will not take
farthing of that money; it is yours.
"Then share it with me-" he sal
softly. 81 would not ask you once
because / did not loyeyou. donow
because love has grown in my hear
for you in an hour. Lena, you hav
nursed me back to lifefrom what mus
have been very nearly death. Wi
you learn to care enough for me t
share my future?" -
you love mel" she said incred,
lousy. "When did you learn the le
SOM"
CAT day dawn, while I watched 70
asleep in your chair, ere ! knew VII