The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1897-11-26
AisteItaueults
THE LITTLE LAME ANGEL.


Once | wrote about two little boys
who played together all through the
| heats of the dry summer i'll a garden
very beautiful! and old. The tale told
how it came to pass that one of the
boys was lame, and also why they
love one another so greatly.
Now, it happened, that some loved
what was told, and perhaps even moIe
| that which was not told, but only
| limited. and from overseas there came
| letters one, two. and three, asking to
| be told what these two did in the
| beautiful garden of Long Ago, what
they played at, where they went, and
what the dry summer heats had TO do
with it all.
Perhaps it is foolish thing to try
| to write down i'll words that which
was at once so little and so dear. Yet.
because l loved the garden and the
boys, | must, for my own pleasure, tell
of them once again.
1t was Jiminy's garden, or at least
his fathers, which is the same thing,
| or even better. For his father lived
| in a gloomy study with severe books,
bound in divinity calf all about him,
and was no more conscious of the eX-
| istence of the beautiful garden than
ii IL IldIl Deell tic DGStlt vi Sdlldl
On the other hand, Jimmy never
opened a book that summer except
| when he could not help it, which was
once a day, when his father instructed
him in the Latin verb.
The old garden was cut into squares
| by noble walks bordered by lockwood,
high like hedge. For it had once
been the garden of monastery, and
the yews and the box were all that re-
| manned of what the good monks had
spent so much skill and labor upon.
There was an orchard also. with old
gnarled, green-mosseG trees, that bore
| little fruit, but made a glory of shade
| in the dogdays. Up among the
branches Jimmy made platform, like
| those Jaikie read to him about in u
book of Indian travel, where the
| hunters waited for tigers to come un.
| derneath them. Ever since Jaikie be-
came lame he lived at the manse, and
the minister let him read all sorts of
queer books all day long, if so he wish
ed. AS for Jimmy, he had been
| brought up among books, and cared
little about them; but Jaikie looked
upon each one as a new gate of para
disc.
You never can tell" said Jaikie to
| Jimmy; backs is deceivin', likewise
names. I've looked i'll ever so many
books by the man who wrote Robin.
son Crusoe, and there's not an island
in any of them"
Books are all stuff, said Jimmy
Lets play Tiger"
We'll" replied Jaihie, lit was out
out of book got Tiger
| So Jaikie mounted on the platform,
and then began to play "tiger." This
| is how they played it. Jaikie had a
| bow and arrow, and he watched and
waited silently up among the green
| leaves till Jimmy came, crawling as
softly beneath as the tiger goes pit-pat
in his own jungles. Then Jaikie drew
the arrow to head, and shot the tige err
howl the beast sprang in the air, as
though to reach Jaikie. But brave
Jaikie only laughed, and in moment
the tiger fell on his back, pulled up
his trouser legs and expired. For that
is the way tigers always do. They can
not expire without pulling up their
trouser legs. lfyOu do not believe me,
ask the man at the Zoo.
Now, as the former story tells, it was
Jaikie who used always to do what
Jimmy babe him; but after Jaikie was
hurt, helping Jiminy's father to keep
his church and manse, it was quite
different. Jimmy used to come to
Jaikie and say, What shall we do to-
dayY' And then he used to wheel his
friend in little carriage the village
Joiner made, and afterwards carry
him among the orchard trees to the
place he wanted to 60 10.
Jimmy" said Jaikie, the foo ers
are bonnie in the plots, but they are
a. prisoners. Let Us make IL place
where they can grow as they like"
Perhaps he thought of himself laid
weak and lonely, when the green
world without was all a-growing and
ALLOWING.
Bring some of the flowers up to this
corner" said Jaikie, the lame boy
And it was not long till Jimmy
brought them. The ground was bak
ed and dry, however, and soon they
would have withered, but that JaiRie
issued his commands, and Jimmy RAJ
for pals of water from the little burI
where now the water had stopped
flowing, and only slept black in pooh
with a little green scum overit.
Il can't carry ywater all night like
this" said Jimmy at last. Il suppose
we must give up this wild garden here
in the corner of the orchard
No" said Jaikie, rubbing his lame
ankle where it hurt, I'VE must mo-