Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1889-09-20


mind memory of the smile that had
flashed like a ripple of heart sunshine
betwixt Uncle Jed and his little charge
and with a vision of ,Janie's delicate face,
her soft blue eyes and sweet, sensitive
mouth l could but wonder-I hope was
not heterodox-if of the two an atmos-
phere of kindly, warm affection might
not be as conductive to the growth of the
little human plant as the most perfect
system of precepts and rules without it.
The same September Uncle Jed sick
ened with fever. On his first visit the
doctor looked grave, and as the days
passed his face grew no more hopeful.
In his delirium the old man was still
going over the familiar round of his life
Sometimes on his way to the "other
place" dragging his weary feet over the
heavy and burning sand, sometimes stop
ping to rest under the old roadside
beach, and wherever in his fantasy he
wandered little jamie, the companion OF
his latter days, was beside him. And
net only in fancy but in reality, for
through those wcariful days the child
clumg closely to her old friend, stroking
his hand with her light touch, pressing
her soft cheek against his, so SCARED and
furrowed and parched, answering when
IN unconsciousness he called her name, and
watching him with dismal pain in her
soft blue eyes.
But there came day when little jamie
lay stricken with the same fever, and
when the doctor felt the swift but weak
pulse throbbing in the small, white wrist
he shook his head again. 1t may be that
the sanitary condition of the old house
was bad, though it had never before af-
fected those beneath its roof; possibly,
as Mrs. Sharp intimated, their nursing
might have been improved, but it was
the best that those who rendered it knew
how to give, and who of us can do more?
And it might have been in that conflic
with disease that the most skilled nurse
would with the doctor have had to own
defeat Her fever was not of the violent
type of Uncle Jed's For the most part
she lay quiet; sometimes grooming frag-
ments of hymns that she had learned in
or Scripture texts. But
ever with it all the tide of life ebbed
lower and weaker.
And at last one day, one sunny antumn
day, clad with the glow and ripeness of
the year, an unwonted hush seemed to
rest over the weather-worn old house.
The doctor made his usual visit, but it
was brief one, and his medicine case
unopened. Now and then
neighbor ran in with quiet step,
speaking in half whispers, and the group
of big, broad-shouldered sons made no
pretense of work, but hung about the
house with a strange detection apparent
in their attitude and faces.
Slowly, so slowly to they who sat under
the impending shadow the day wore away
ill late afternoon. Uncle Jed had fretted
for jamie and they had lifted her from
her little cot and laid her beside him.
Soothed by her presence he sank into
half-stupor. Presently he
reused himself, Come, jamie" he
said, ''the sun is almost down, it is time
We were going to the other place for the
COWS. Bruno! Bruno!" And the old
log lying inside the bed reused up ana
beat his tail loudly on the floor, rcspon-
i've to the call of the master he would
never follow again.
Then he dozed away again for little
while and when he woke the same fancy
vas still in his mind. .'How long the
way is, he murmured; ''let us rest
title. I never used to get so tired It
must be l am getting old. Yes, I'd had
little shavers around me so long / missed
EN-, and twas lonesome going about
llone, but you like to go with me, don't
7ou, Janie?"
She nestled closer to him and slipped
Ter arm about his neck. eyes, Uncle
Ied," she whispered, 81 likcto go with
7ou.n
In few moments he spoke again
'ery family this time. ''Come, little
Ianie, we must be going, How late it
grows; the sun is almost down"
He put out his hand so thin and vast
ID and with all the sunburn faded from
t now-and she slipped hers-small,
White and chill-into it as if for the
tarting.
a long, long silence followed, the
lock in an outer room ticlled loudly, the