Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-08-14


girls in the doorway; lust amuse your
selves until 1 come"
The man hurried ahead, and stood
waiting in the doorway of trig, box
like little house. Everything was clean
and still; an air of solemn expectancy
brooded over the place.
A woman came into the entry Her
face was portentous and important
looking.
Have you got her?'' she asked, in
| loud whisper. Its an awful queer no.
ton for a dyin' person to take" she
continued, turning to the girl. ''She's
growing weaker. It's slow fever, you
know, miss; but guess she can hear
| yet
Rena followed her into room rather
bare, but painfully clean On the spot
| less pillow was a white, wan face with
| closed eyes. Another woman sat by the
bed tanning her. The dark eyes opened
slowly, and a weak voice whispered:
| Il knew she'd come. Now I'll hear
her."
Rena stood at the foot of the bed, for
the first time in her life painfully en-
| barrassed.
What shall L recite?' she asked ap-
pealingly of the women.
They sat with decorously folded
hands.
| Something suitable to the occa-
sion,'' one said, primly.
Rena thought a shade of protest
| fitted across the white face on the bed
Little Boy Blue" flashed to her be-
wildered memory, and she eagerly
caught at it. Even to herself her voice
had never sounded so pathetic as she
! told the tender little story.
! When she finished, the two stolid
/ h.;
heavy tears lay on the sick woman's
1 white cheeks Again she opened those
| weary eyes, and to the girls thought
| there was reckoning in them She fol-
| lowed her impulse, and bent over the
| bed.
Now g-different," the
woman gasped.
Asudden Inspiration flashed to Rena's
mind. She stood we'll out in the room
and commenced the Chariot Race
from ben Hur." Both nature and art
| had done a great deal for her in an
| Evolutionary way. She had recited be-
fore critical friends, and envious ones,
! before eXacting, cultivated audiences,
but her widest fancy had never placed
| her in so difficult position as this.
The homely room, with its chilling
| quiet, the death-Ii1e auditor on the bed,
her solemn eyes following every move
ment, was oppressive and uncanny, but
never had she recited as she did that
day.
The great amphitheater with its bril-
liant, frenzied populace, the rush and
trample of the horses, the breathless
hush, the crash of the wild chariots,
/ the triumph of the matchless Ara bs
and their wonderful driver, swayed and
surged and beat through the room like
a mighty wind.
| The two women sat with open
mouths and staring eyes.
The man had come inside the door
and stood erect, cIenching his hands in
| his excitement.
said, in loud, resonant voice, forget
full for an instant of every thing but the
story.
Then they looked toward the bed.
The sick woman was sitting up.
"Ohi" she cried, with note of long
drawn ecstasy, then fell back ex-
hausted.
she's deadl" cried Rena, in a CULVER
of fear.
| There was a horror-stricken instant.
| Then she reused and spoke almost
strongly, grasping convulsively the
| girls warm, dimpled hand in her cold.
wasted fingers
Maybe I'll live till tomorrow, if
| you'll promise to come again."
iii surely come" Rena said, softly,
then slipped out.
She was full of her odd experience,
| but she told 1T at the dinner table that
evening with a touch of hesitancy. Some
how she did not feel like having much
said about it.
DR.. Randolph was there, too, and she
wondered anXiously what he would
think. Somehow, the recitation of a
| thing like that to dying woman sud
denly seemed rude and ill-timed. Her
cheeks burned.
The doctor looked at her thought
fully.
| Possibly you can cure her, Miss
Rena,'' he said. Sometimes in a low
| fever the patient gets apathetic and in
different, and slips away from sheer
lack of energy. Maybe you can reverse
| the idea somewhat, and, as a second
Scheherazde, chain the poor woman to
life by your eloquence-"