Huntsville gazette., 1888-05-12
LITTLE ONE"
How He Came to Us, and How He
Slipped Away.

1t suited him somehow, the name
Little One.
In all his brief life he had not known
or answered to any other. 1t seemed
TO be part and parcel with himself, and
it had tenaciously clung to him from
the hour he had been thrown friend
less waif upon our mercy until the
present, when at ten years of age he
was no larger than most children of
four and five.
We childless couple-my hus-
band and l. Our luxurious home had
never resounded to the pattering of
baby footsteps nor the music of baby
voices, and so when on that bitter WIN
ter's night we had found him lying in
mute helplessness upon the threshold,
we thanked God, and at once adopted
him into home and heart. And in
home and heart he had reigned tri-
umphant ever since.
Who he was-from whence extracted
we had never thought to question.
1t mattered little if honor or shame
was his heritage. He had come to us
in time of sorest need; he was help
less and innocent and fair to look upon,
and so we had straightway enthroned
the tiny stranger.
From the very first he was possessed
of touching. appealing sort of beauty
and of most endearing baby ways;
and as day by day discovered some
new charm in mind or body, we grew
to love him with love that was akin
to idolatry. Oh. how we loved our
Little One! And now. when / stand
beside the mound that covers his ashes,
how the hot tears gush to my eyes;
and how throbs my heart in keenest
anguish, as 1 recall the winsomeness
that so endeared him!
Had we been gifted with a prophet 5
vision, we would have foreseen that
the jewel had been lent us for season
only, and the blow had not then fallen
SO suddenly as to find us unprepared.
The many-veined transparent tenn
ples-the large, melancholy blue eyes
ever bent upon the Unseen, as it were
the gentle tones-the spirit-like
tread-told story all their own; but
love had blinded us and we could not
read "between the linesr'
For him the future was to be one
unending dream of delight; for him
we built castles in Spain, and planned
and boarded, so that when manhood
should come to him he would take
his place among the proudest in the
land. Could we but have known that
this frail life, so dear to us, was fast
receding from our grasp-that the ten
der feet were even now approaching
the shores of the Mystic Sea, think We
we would have SO dreamed and
planned? True, there were moments,
even in our blindness, when vague
fear would send pang sharper than
sword-thrust to the heart, as we caught
his rapt, far-away gaze, or marked an
unusual languor in his movements.
But all such fears were dismissed as
quickly as they came, and we would &C
ON planning and dreaming as before.
Always quiet child, he grew more
and more so as time sped on, until now
none ever saw him engage in romp and
play like others of his age, nor heard
his voice raised in boyish laugh OF
shout. This was unnatural and should
have caused us timely alarm SO that
we might have tried the efficacy OF
more vigorous measures. But we
were blind and could not see what
was best for the child. For hours and
hours he would amuse himself in his
own subdued fashion with his books
and toys while sat sewing near him.
And !, who loved him better than life,
was content to have it thus.
7z: But when the twilight shadows filled
the room it was his habit to throw his
playthings aside, climb my knee, and
nesting his golden head in my bosom
I beg me to tell him the dear old Bible
stories, and of the angels with theil
harps and crowns-stories to which he
had listened from infancy. but o.
which he never wearied. Then wher
bedtime came and had robed him in
his snowy nightdress, he would knee
at my feet. reverently fold his waxer
hands and pray with an earnestness
that was almost uncanny in SO young
a child, after which he would coax tc
be taken in my arms to be rocked and
sung to sleep. 1t was a baby trick Of
his which he had never outgrown, and
one in which | delighted to indulge
him. 1t all comes back to me-the
tiny white-robed form. the grooming
lullabies, the saint-like prayer, the con