The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1898-02-01

SUNDAY morning 8 soma Tim S,OcIOIc meet uS
| don't know what she would have don
if there had been a Mather child, but for
tunately for the other children there neye
was one.
1t was through the love of the childre
that sometimes great spiritual renewa
and JOY came to Miss Rhody. If she ha
her superstitions, o must pardon her
for if she thought she saw the soul O
little Mary Burns lowering in a thi
mist over the body it had just left, you
need not believe it; but it comfOrte
both herself and Mary's mother. An
as the breathing of old Mr.. Brier cease
to lift his weary breast and only move
his nerveless lips and tiuttered and tut
tered there till it ceased: if Miss RhOdy
saw a great white butterfly poised in
flight above hat faltering lip, so far rs
she was concerned she really did see
white butterfly, and it meant Who'll
gospels to her. She had never let tn
children chase the white butterflies
since she had heard Will Mather relat
some legend of the east. "Ihey are littl
Chinese ghosts, the white butterflies
she said to the children. "They are fly
ing round the world to find a way out o
it. We must not hinder them"
Miss RhOdy was with Sally Lavenda
the night that little Polly died. Th
child had been in a delirium. and Sail
had sat IN one side of the bed holding
her. Miss Rhody on the other. Hum
phrey was pacing up and down the big
outer kitchen, like Il wild animal in a
cage, and Polly having dropped into a
~momcntary sleep. Sally had just gone t
him. 1t was just before dawn, and n
great star. like a shining tear, hung on
the sky. Suddenly the child awOke. APP
parently all herself. 80. it is dark, it is
dark. | am afraid!' she cried presently.
Take my hand. Somebody. Lead me-"
cts all right, Polly, darling. I'm
here cried Miss Rhody. you're only
dreaming dear. Don't You see the lamp?
Here's my hand" And then Sally came
running back. She turned up the light.
but is hickered and went out. She threw
herself on the bed again, and took Pol
Polly. st isn't dark at all now. Yon
brought the light in with you. ma. Did
You bring the people. toe? See them.
see them. The pretty girl with the
sweetbrier-the children's faces! @. they
are like the blossoms in the apple tree,
so many of them, so many of them! 1hey
are going to take me with them-yes, I'm
coming.' And as the breath left her lips
with the words. Miss Rhody declared
she saw as plainly as she ever saw any
thing in her life that girl with the sweet
brier. in one light lovely as youth and
JOY, in another with the look of age thu
Sally's little grandmother had-saW. too
that cloud of cherub, faces a wall q
trellis. before Sally's desolate wal
brought her back to pain and grief an
her consoling work again. For Sally he
lieved that Rhody saw it all, and grieve
that she was not good enough to see i
herself. She was bereft: but looking a
Humphrey she did not grieve for Polly
Ann did for always 90 to sea with he
husband. When she did, she left ia
key of their house with Miss Rhod
who was to go in and air it once in
While. 1t was aired much more FIRE
~uuently than need wasrthere seemed t
Rhody much danger of the portrait
getting mOuldy or mildewed or some
thing. Rhody used to let the SUI j
and gaze on it, those days. with a for
petful rapture. And the voya ges whe
Ann remained at home it went hard VII
Rhody if she did not get in to see Ann
and the p~icture-every afternoon for jus
4 moment or two. And in the nights o
her sick watching she used to find
window where she could look out at tn
stars and wonder if Will saw them
TOO. and if he was thinking of the Shor
and of Ann and of her, perhaps, also
And when down at the port the bar
came in safe and sound, she had a re
newed assurance that the world wa
right side up. Then there was a light
ness and a sweetness in the air. Their
was a sort of sunshine even on a rain
day. and she thanked heaven for he
lot. and felt that there We're few NOR
blessed among women than she. wit
her home to go to, with the childre
tina were hers almost as much as the
We're their mothers, with her work an
her friends.
But one voyage the bark did not com