Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-28

| did not recover her bloom, her mirth, he
elasticity; her small face was always grave
and pale. She went about her work in tht
| same way, and was docile, and industrious
and uncomplaining, but something wa
wrong with her She did not laugh, sh,
| did not sing. she seldom even spoke unles
| she was spoken to first. He tried to per
suade himself that there was no change in
her: but he knew that he tried to feed him.
| self on falsehood. He might as we'll have
| thought his lemon tree unaltered II he haC
found it withered up by fire.
/ Once she said to him: Gould one walR
| there ?''
ssWhere, dear? Where?
"Where they have put Cecco," she ans
wered, knowing nothing of distance OF
measurements or the meaning OF travel and
change of place She had never been far
ther than across the ferry to the other bank
of the river
He threw up his hands in despair.
sLordl my treasured why it is miles and
miles and miles awayi don't know
rightly even where-somewhere the sun
goes down.
And her idea of walking thither seemed
to him so supplying, SO amazing, so incred-
ible, that be stared at her timorously, afraid
that her brain was going wrong. He had
never gone anywhere in all his life.
"Ask how one can get there" she per-
sisted, and wound her arm about his throat,
and laid her cheek against his in her old
caressing way.
"You are mad, little one; quite madr'
said Fringuello, aghast and affrighted;
and he begged the priest to come and see
her.
The priest did come, but said sorrowfully
to him: "Were 1 you 1 would take her
down to one of the hospitals in the town;
she is ill.,"
He did so. He had been in town but a
few times in his whole life; she never. 1t
was now wintry weather; the roads were
wet, the winds were cold; the child coughed
as she walked, and shivered in her scanty
and too thin clothes. The wise men at the
hospital looked at her hastily among a
crowd of sick people, and said some unin-
telligible words, and scrawled something
on piece of paper-a medicine. as it proved
which cost to buy more than day of
sand carriers wages.
HAS she really any 'illness?" heI asked,
with wild imploring eyes, of the chemist
who made up the medicine
''Oh, no; mere nothing" said the man
in answer; but thought as he spoke: "The
doctors might spare the poor DEVILS money.
When the blood is all water like that there
Is nothing to be done, the life just goes out
like wind-blown candle. Get her good
wine, butchers meat plenty of nourishing
food" he added, rejecting that while there
is youth there is hope.
The father groaned aloud as he laid down
the coins which were the price of the medi-
cine. Wine! Meat Nourishment! They
might as well have hidden him feed her on
powdered pearls and melted gold. They
got home that day footsore and wet through;
he made little fire of boughs and vine
branches, and for the first time, ever since
it had been planted, he forgot to look at the
lemon tree
"You are not i'll, my Lizinina?" he said
eagerly; "the chemist told me it was moth
ing"
'Oh, no, it is nothing" said the child,
and she spoke cheerfully, and tried to con-
troll the cough which shook her from head
TO foot.
Tears rolled down her fathers cheeks and
fell onto the smoldering heather which he
had set alight Wine! Meatl Nourish-
mpent!--the three vain words rang through
MS head all night. They might as well
nave bade him set her on a golden throne,
Ind call the stars down from their spheres
70 circle round her.
"My poor little babyI' he thought;
never did she have finger ache, or a win
er chill, or an hours discomfort, or a mo-
nent's pain in mind or body until now."
''Oh, my pretty, what should we do. you |
md l, in a strange placep' moaned Fringu- |
lilo, weeping with fear at the thought of |
hange and with grief at the worn, fevered |
ace lifted up to his "Never have 1 stirred |
rom hora OF T uos horn rau IT. /