The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-11-14

Ing, carrying baskets Of earth for the
vineyards. or pushing wheelbarrow.
She killed time in this way-killed the
weeks, the months, the year, with the
peculiar vigor of little nervous some.
body possessed by one strong purpose
Her particular wish was to die sud-
denly in the midst of her work-to have
the pleasant surprise Of hearing the
good God saying: That is enough
come to mel" She had . great fear of
becoming old, infrm. incapable of
working, and of inspiring pity by her
infirmity and her misery. She had al
ways carried her hump without asking
anybody's compassion; and she dreaded
to excite pity. il
But it came to pass not as she had
wished. One day while rolling q very
heavy load. she felt sharp pain in her
breast. Next day she was very i'll,
trembling with fever. and unable to eat.
She went to the doctor and told him she
had strained herself somehow aud
forced her stomach out of place. The
old doctor auscultated her, and made q
queer motion with his lips. She had
nothing displaced internally; but she
was worn out, exhausted. BY forty years
OF ceaseless labor-by nervous strains.
by joyless life whose movements had
never been regulated BY the least i'm
pulse Of happiness. She was like bow
Of which the cord had been worn
throuRh-or clock that had stopped
at the beginning Of another hour, be-
cause its works had been worn away by
incessant and monotonous revolution.
She tried to set herself to work again
but her will could exers no force upon
the ruined mechanism of her being.
She had to take to her bed and re-
main in it-always the same bed And
therein the silence Of her little room,
with her eyes staring At the same cur
tains of green serge which had been
moved long ago by the last breath OF
her parents she asked herself II she
was going to remain long in that state.
She felt pretty sure that she could never
get well; but it made her suffer so much
to linger in that fashion at the very gate
OF the other world! She imagined that
gate to be like the gate of church or
the doors of tabernacle-with little
gold angels and beams of sacramental
light and colored rays as of stained
glass windows with the sun shining
through them. She was knocking at
the gate, she thought, even as Jesus
knocked at the gates of the temple of
Jerusalem. 1t opened to her in her
dreams. aud beyond it was the Other
Life. where she found herself straight
again and her own master" in the
midst of luminous immensely, where
the clouds were stirred with waving of
white wings, and all was sweetness and
peace.
But She was soon reused rudely from
these dreams. The female neghbor,
who had been taking care Of her, began
to complain of her avarice. The truth
was that all the hunchbacks savings
had been spent
She decided to send for her first
master, whose children she had been so
kind to. He had become very old, very
avaricious-almost cruel He simply
advised her to enter the almshouse,
stating that he himself would try to get
her admitted-which effort, he thought,
would not cost him very dear Terrified
at the mere idea of leaving her home
she refused. She wanted to die in the
bed OF her parents, not in charity bed.
She almost hated the old man for
having so much as proposed the thing;
and she turned her face to the wall, re-
solved never to ask for anything more.
AS for hun. be went his way-telling
everybody in the neighborhood that the
old woman was putting on airs-refus-
ing to go to the poorhouse where plenty
rio har b,t oh, LoI
would have to 60 yet!
Other masters, however. who had not
been applied to at ALL provided gener-
ously for all her wants.
Really, however, the hunchback
wanted nothing She could not eat
any more. She kept declaring that her
stomach was out of place. In order
not to annoy her, the doctor was obliged
to agree with her. The parish priest
came to see her several DAYS in success
sion. She talked to him about the other
world. 1t seemed to her that she had
already become less deformed She
felt as if TRANSPORTED. And she always
kept asking;
= will come back again, won't I9"
Yes, my child, replied the old man.
Straight and my own master"
"Stra ght and your own master"
She smiled with pleasure. tried to sit
up. and died.
My parish priest wrote me all about
it yesterday. l felt very sorry; for l
knew the hunchback. when l was little.
| do not know whether she will ever
come back again Straight and her
own master:'-but l believe that no
happier soul than hers ever left de-
formed body to soar to the stars through
the blue nights of my native village
(hna.Loa RinhaeIa L