Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1888-11-07

worse 70 see you thore. Get up ana go
away"
Mrs. Bray ceased her duplication.
For moment she neither moved nor
spoke. The silence of utter despair
fell upon her. Then she rose TO her
feet with a dazed, uncertain, distraught
air. Staring at the woman to whom
she had prayed In vain with strange,
stony, terrible face, she burst into peal
after peal OF mad, discordant laughter.
Morciful powers" cried the doctor,
and springing forward he caught Mrs.
Bruck by the arm. He SO far forgot
himself that he shook her. woman"
he said, sternly, lido you know what
you have donep"
Mrs. Bruck did not feel the vise-like
grasp upon her arm. She did not hear
him. In a horror so great that for a
moment even her dead baby was for
gotten, she looked on the ruin she had
wrought. The wild laughter ended in
a wilder cry, and throwing up her
arms Mrs. Bray fell to the floor. They
raised her up and laid her on the bed.
A burning fever was upon her, and she
muttered incoherently:
Doctor, is there any hopeP" gasped
Mrs. Bruck, as she bent over her.
Zone chance out of ten for her life"
said the doctor, grimly.
In an agony OF remorse that exceed
ed, II it were possible, the remorse OF
the woman who had prayed to her but
few moments previous, Mrs. Bruck
hung over the PROSTATE form upon the
bed.
She took her place by the bedside,
and from that moment she hardly left
it. She knew no rest; she scarcely ate
or slept. Night and day she kept her
tireless, unceasing watch. To bring
the woman she had wronged back to
life and reason, IL it were possible, that
was the task she had set herself, and
health and strength, her very life it.
self, were offered up upon this altar OF
atonement. She left her dead baby to
be cared for by others, and when the
time came to bury it from sight, they
brought her child to the bedside she
hardly quilted for last kiss, and
last look.
The dreary time crept on, without
one ray Of hope or comfort, while the
woman she watched trembled between
life and death. How long it lasted she
could not tell; to her tortured heart 1t
seemed an age of suffering. But stars
illumed this night OF anguish. In
dreams that visited her brief sleep, a
glorified, radiant little being came that
called Ter mother, bringing with 1t
subtle, holy influences which taught
the blessed truths OF Christian forgive
ness, charity and love, and voice fell
from Divine heights, saying what 10
said with mortal lips over eighteen
hundred years ago: Little children,
love one another" II would rouse her
from her sleep to watch with agony too
deep for words for some stray CLEAN
Of the reason she had quenched, which
might never return, and to say over
and over, with streaming tears: "God
will forgive"
AS the days and nights went on, a
marked change came over her, born of
these subtle influences, these divine
teachings. A great love filed her
heart for the woman who had wronged
her, and whom she had wronged, a
love springing from the Christ-love
that was born within her, deeper,
stronger, UNNECESSARILY more tender
than the old-time friendship was. For
they had been friends once, and all the
good Mrs. Bray had done her. in the
old times when they loved each other,
rose up before her, and she thought
how noble and generous she had been,
how helpful and kind, and bending
over the sick woman In her helpless
ness, she wondered how she could
eveAhave forgotten these things, and
warred against and hated her. She
saw, by a divinely-illuminated con-
science, that for the tragic ending OF
their quarrel she herself was most to
blame. II was her cool, insulting, ag
gravating ways that had dashed the
quick, high temper into fury that
caused her baby's death.
What she had wildly prayed for
came suddenly one day, when hope
was well-nigh dead within her. As
she sat by the bed, looking despairing
ly at the pallid face upon the pillow,
the eyes, with the light of reason in
them, opened suddenly and looked al
her, and feeble smile came upon the
pale lips, as they closed again in
troll had been so great that she had
neither spoken nor moved, but worn
down by mental suffering and cease
less watching, this sudden shock of
Joy overwhelmed her, and for the first
time since her dreary watch began, she
tainted at her post. But when, little
later, the doctor came, she was in her
usual place, keeping silent, almost
breathless watch beside the bed.
After few whispered words with
her, the doctor bent over the sleeping
woman, and his grave face frightened.
1.-THE crisis is passed." he said, land
she is saved. That is, she may be
saved with care. Devotion like yours,
Mrs. Bruck, works miracles some
times. II seems to have done so in this
case. When she wakes, watch your
self and her; any excitement now may
prove fatal" Praying she might have
wisdom TO follow the doctors instruc-
ton, Mrs. Bruck sat by the bed, hour
after hour, watching that long, deep
sleep, and hoping for, yet dreading,
the awakening.
II came at an unlooked-for moment,
and took her unawares. Again the
eyes Of the sick woman opened sud-
denly, and looked into the heavy eyes
that had for hours kept their sleepless
watch upon her. One look at the
changed face was enough, the face
full of love for her, and worn and hag-
gard with long watching and suffer-