Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-09-27

had made. A chokin. sob rose in her
throat as she caught sight of it
"Ah! l was cruel to you. cruel to you,
God forgive me! l struck you. baby
May" she groaned. :" But open your
eyes and look at me. darling. Say you
hate me, but only speak, just to show
you are not dead"
No moan of pain answered her fran
tic appeal, or eased her remorseful
heart. All that could hear and feel
and see were gone. She gave wild
cry as the truth forced itself upon her,
and fell at the feet7of the mother she
had bereft. Forgive me!' she cried.
"for Gods sake forgive me! did not
mean to hurt her. l call God to wit
ness that I did not mean to hurt her.
I pushed her, but did not know she
was so near the edge of the bank;
swear did not know it; perlled my
life in trying to save hers, remember
that. Be pitiful! l would lay it down
now gladly, gladly, if that would bring
her back. and would do more than
that" she went on wildly; Ito lay her
in your arms alive, would give my
baby's life"
In her passionate remorse. she was
clinging to the knees of the woman
she had wronged, the tears that were
running down her face were falling on
her feet.
"Say you forgive me!' she cried in
an agony of supplication. Tell me
you will try to forgive me or shall go
mad!'
But without one CLEAN of pity, the
cold, set, relentless face of the woman
to whom she prayed looked down upon
her. Mrs. Bruck was not hard-hearted
or revengeful, but her baby lay dead be-
fore her, dead, from this woman 8 fault,
and she was in the first shock and pas
sion of her grief; and cast in so
different a mould, she could not UNDER
stand the stormy, impassioned. undis-
ciplined nature of the one PROSTATE at
her feet, or know the frightful risk to
both of the course she was taking.
81 never will forgive you, never"
she said, at last, in cold. slow tones.
"You don't mean it," shrieked the
half-demented suppliant, still clinging
to her despairingly. "You can't mean
it, and see me suffer so. You don't
know what you say"
Striving to tear herself from the
strong clasp that held her, and spurn-
ing the PROSTATE figure at her feet, the
woman to whom she prayed said.
sternly: 81 do mean it. 1t makes me
worse to see you there. Get up and 60
away"
Mrs. Bray ceased her supplication.
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.
"Merciful 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, "do you know what
you have done?"
Mrs. Bruck did not feel the vise-like
grasp upon her arm. She did not hear
him. In 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
q 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 hope?" gasped
Mrs. Bruck, as she bent over her.
lone chance out of ten for her life,"
said the doctor, grimly.
In an agony of remorse that exceed
ed, if 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, if 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 a last kiss, and a
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 it
seemed an age of suffering. But stars
illumed this night OF anguish. In