The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-05-26
THE NIGHTINGALE.

| The suburban road was gay with the
plumes of Towering lilac, and the bright
promise of laburnum The red buds on
the May bushes had not yet uncurled.
The water cart had just gone by, leaving
Il pleasant scent Of wet earth.
She was leaning her arms on the gate
and looking away from him.
| $50 it's no use?" ne sa!4-he also was
very quiet except for passing tradesmen
whose carts now and then flashed along
its silence. He had called to bring her
book and she had walked with him to
the gate. He had not meant to speak
then-had indeed rehearsed muny.a time
a declaration to he made III very differ
ent surroundings-but she looked so dear
spring played so charmingly with that
hair of hers that quite suddenly he had
| spoken and she had said No.
Its no use?' he repeated, for she still
kept silence, and her eyes were far away.
mo, it's no use," she said. II couldn't
him that | couldn't bear my life without
him. That's the only excuse for mar
riage.
Then I'm not to come here any more
"Oh, dear!" she said, drawing her eye
brows together with worried frown,
why did you go and spoil it all? 1t was
all so pleasant! Cunt you he really SCH
sible? Let us 50 on just az we were,
and pretend that nothing has hapened.'
NO." he said, II shall go away. When
one lives iii lodgings they may as well be
III Putney or Kew-as here
She thought how dull tennis and dance
and picnic would be without him, and
said stitfiy: Just as you please, of
course
Then her face lighted up as the rattle
of hoop and hoopstick and little patering
feet drew her eyes to the other side of
the road, where little girl In d scarlet
frock came quickly along the asphalt,
her brown hair flowing behind her.
Here's Vynie--"
The child saw her sister aud her friend,
for he was FRIEND to all children, and
! struck the hoop so that it bounded on
the curb and flew into the middle uf the
road. The little scarlet tgufe followed it.
Then, in a flash, butchers cart from a
side rouu, Il clatter, Il scream, curse,
and the butcher was refining in his horse
thirty yards down the road and looking
back over his shoulder ut heap of scar
mixed with it, and over which d girl in
a blue gown and IL man in a gray suit
| were bending.
Her leg is broken. They have set it.
1t will be months before she eau walk.
But they say she will BIZ all right then
again.
The two were standing at their gate
again, but now there was no fresh rose
in her face, and in his eyes no light of
passion.
MY poor deor," he said==and she did
not resent the words-''let me do any
thing l can. Forget all that folly Of
this tI morn morning and let me help my poer lit
Il will->suu SHALL" she said, looking
at him through swollen eyelids red with
weeping, but there is nothing anyone
can do 1t is horrible! When told her
she would have to lie still for time she
tried to smile, and then she said, Don't
cry, Sissy: will be as good as gold;'
and then she said she should sleep all day,
and lie awake at night to hear the night
ingale. She has never heard it yet"
He remembered how he had listened to
the nightingale in the copse behind her
| house on many a summer night when he
had walked lonely III the fields to see her
light in the window and her shadow on
the blind, and he. sighed and said:
"The nightingales are singing bravely
in the wood beyond the station. Pm glad
she has thought of something that pleases
her. poor darling"
Vynie, lying still and rigid in her
splints. with wide open eyes, watched the
day die. Then the lamp was lighted and
presently that in its turn gave place to
the yellow glow of the night light ahd
the great shadows it cast.
Are you asleep, Sissy, fiy own?' said
the little voice,
"Ne, my darling" Rose bent over the
bed. Does it want anything! Will it
have some milk-nice tizzy milky'
"No-yes; but | want to hear the night
isgf t i Sitsy enou MhX doesn't ne begin
Yes, my sweetheart, but perhaps the
nightingale's got such pretty home, in
the warm country where he lives, that he
can't make up his mind to come here"
"Oh, Sissy, he must come! I can't lie
still all the time unless he comes! Do
please ask God to tell the nightingale
how badly | want, him. And, Sissy, put
like to sing till he's sure I'm i'll bed, and
he couldn't know I've got broken,
could hep
"No, my precious one: Try to go to
sleep, and Sissy will wake you if he be-
gins to sing"
But Vynie could not sleep, and by
morning the fever was high. She
talked and moaned and laughed. but al
ways her cry was for the nightingale.
Master Tom, miss, to inquire"
Rose went down, trembling with want
of sleep, haggard with anxiety. She took
the great basket of roses her friend had
brought, and holding it, told him how
the night had passed. '"They were sing
ing like mad down by the station" he
said. "Confound the prutes! l expect
your nightingale isn't coming this year"
Don't" said the girl. Il believe Vynie
will have no rest if he doesn't. When
she heard the church bells this morning
she told me to send to the clergyman and
tell him to explain to God that she
couldn't do without the nightingale. Oh,
my own little girl! Oh, Tom, she's all
| have"
Tom was not such fool as to say,
you have me- He only said, Eyes, 1
know" and pressed her hand.
"You are good" she said, and went
back to the child.
A little titful sleep came in the long
night hours of that terrible Sunday, but
it was broken and feverish, and at every
awakening. the little voice, growing ever
"Isn't it dark yet? Won't God send
the nightingale? Oh, Sissy, do want
to hear him."
The old servant, who had been with
the two. sisters since Vynie's birth, two
the life of the mother, insisted on sending
Rose to rest, and sat by Vynie's side.
"Nursey," whispered the child, come
close. Will you do what say?'
Anything, my precious" said the old
woman, holding the hot little hand in her
smooth, withered palms.
"Well, kneel down and tell God shall
die if don't have the nightingale. God
will attend to you because you always re-
member to say your prayers. l forget
mine sometimes, even when I am not
very sleepy. Oh, nursey, l shall never
be sleepy any more. Do tell God all
The old woman knelt by the bedside,
and with faith simple and beautiful as
the child's own told God all about it,"
lay with cheeks scarlet against the white
pillow and shining eyes fixed on the slow
" darkening squares Of the window.
She moaned with pain and the misery Of
sleeplessness. =
open the window, nursey, my DEAR
she said softly, when the night had al