The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-05-13

y
ing it to me? do want it so. 1t can't
mean much to you, and TO me it is all
the world-all that is left of hope,
memory, companionship, love, home"
Through the long bare wards of the
hospital the white-gowned nurse led
her silently; opposite them the snow
was moisting the great high windows.
The whole atmosphere was so tense
with stiffness and suffering and death
that the young lady sbivered among
her wraps as she passed down the aisle.
He had evidently been expecting her
for he had been cleanly shaved, and
Miss Boughton was shocked and yet
pleased by his appearance. He was
terribly emaciated, and as he lay with
closed eyes and his face half turned
away, she noticed the fine delicate
chiselling of his features, and the SEN
sitive, almost feminine curves of his
mouth under his mustaehe. One hand
lay closed on the coverlid, bony and
large. His malady seemed to have
cleansed away all the weakness and
dissipation and squaler, and left only
the fine and beautiful. Life had cloth
ed him in shame and wretchedness :;
deaths mantle draped him in awful
dignity. The nurse touched him light
ly on the shoulder-the poor, sharp
shoulder. "Here is some one TO see
you,n she said.
lie opened his eyes, which, bright
with fever, were startling, brilliant,
and beautiful, and feebiy tried to turn
himself, smiling, and looking at the
bundle she held pressed against her
coat with that quick eagerness she re-
membered so well. She understood,
and bending forward, pressed his hand
and laid the book upon his arm.
"Open it, please" he whispered.
She did so, and catching it again in
his hands, he looked at the inscription,
and assured that il was his very own,
with force for which she was entirely
unprepared he pressed it to his lips and
hugged it his breast.
''God bless you u' he said with look
of the most grateful happiness. "Oh,
my dear mother my dear mother ~
For some moments he lay silent, with
his eyes shut, but when she attempted
gently to draw away her hand, he de-
tanned it feebly with his own.
'The world is full of Kindness" he
said, with his faint smile. Ever so
many people have been nice to me, all
in all. That is why / thought it so
sweet of you to come. like to think,
don't you know, that the last thing
which happened to me was a kindness.
It's a pleasant thought to take away
with one. Ny mother will be so CRATE
ful to you"
Miss Boughton felt the tears coming;
he was such a gentleman and he must
have suffered so. "Ah, it is pitifully
little" she said. 81 might have done
so much if had only known"
He looked down at the counterpane
idly, spreading out his skinny hand.
"You have done what you could" +" he
said presently, smiling into her face.
al want you to remember that always
as great happiness-that you have
done what you could. It's a beautiful
thing to be good woman," he added
softly, as if to himself. ~ haven't
been very good man. was weak
and emotional, and then she died, and
then lost my money, and then bor-
rowed from my friends, and then i got
to drinking-oh it's the old story.
There are hundreds like me. But l
want you TO know, because you have
been SO very good to me, and because
there isn't one soul in all this world
who cares whether L die here or drop
by the way-side, that / have always
tried to be good, and to do as she want
ed me, and that every night / have
read here, and thought of her and
longed for her."
Miss Boughton hesitated. "Would
you like me toto read to you?" she
asked.
"Thank you very much," he said,
shaking his head, "but I'd rather say
it to myself, if you don't mind. | re-
member so well every tone, every in
Election, of her voice. l can quite hear
her. She was a beautiful reader"
He closed his eyes again, and little
cDntented sigh escaped him. She could
see his lips moving, murmuring, the
book still pressed tightly to his breast.
Miss Boughton leaned over him and
could just catch the words, "and-
take-me-to-heave aven-when-I-die die.
Amen ~
1t was prayer learned at his moth
er's knee, and as he breathed it, a
smile as trustful and innocent as little
child's played over his face.
Her friend the nurse came presently
and stopped beside the bed. "four
mission" she whispered gently, sis
fulfilled I'm Harper's Magazine for
February.