The Portland daily press., 1899-08-11
THE NIGHTINGALE.
BY Z. NEsB1-.
He Sang Like a Bird, Saved q
Life and Won a Girl.

She was leaning on her arms at the
gate and looking away from him.
"It's no USE" she said. Il couldn't
marry any one suniess l was so fond OF
him that couldn't bear my life without
him. That's the only excuse for mar
ringe."
''rhen I'm not to come here any more
II supposeT'
"0h. dcar!'' she said. drawing her eye
brows together with worried frown
'Whv did you go and sroil il all? 1t was
oil so pleasant Can't you really be SEN
sible? Let us go on just as we were, and
pretend that nothing has happened"
mo" he said, Il shall so away. When
one lives in lodgings they may as well
be in putney or Kew-as here
She thought how dull tennis and dance
and picnic would be without him, and
said stiffly, Just as you please. of
course"
Then her face lighted up as the rattle
of hoop and hoop stick and little patter-
ing feet drew her eyes to the other side
of the road, where little girl in a scar
let frock came quickly along the asphalt,
her brown hair flying behind her.
Here's yynie"-
The child saw her sister and her friend,
for he was friend to all children. and
struck the hoop so that it bounded on the
curb and few into the middle of the road.
The little scarlet figure followed it. Then,
In q flash. n butchers cart from a side
road. n catter, a scream, n curse, and
the butcher was refining in his horse 80
yards down the road and looking back
over his blue shoulder at heap of scar
let and brown that now had crimson
mixed with it. and over which girl in a
blue gown and man in gray suit were
bending
"Hcr leg is broken. They have set it.
1t will be months before she can walk.
But they say she viii be all right again
them
The two were standing at the gate
ngain, hut now there was no fresh rose
In her face. and in his eyes no light of
passion.
My poor dear" he said, and she did
not resent his words. 'let me do any
thing ! can. Forget all that folly of this
morning and let me help my poor little
Vynie,"
Il will-you SHALL" she said, looking
Mt him through swollen eyelids red with
weeping, hut there is nothing any one
can do. 1t is horrible. When told her
she would have TO lie still for a time, she
tried to smile, and then she said: Don't
cry Sissy. | viii be as good as gold.'
And then she said she would sleep all
day and lie awake at night to hear the
nightingale. She has never heard it
yeti
He remembered how he had listened to
the nightingale in the copse behind her
house on many summer night when he
had walked lonely in the fields to see
her light in the window and her shadow
on the blind, and he sighed and said:
''Ihe nightingales are singing brayely
In the wood beyond the station. I'm
glad she has thought Of something that
pleases her, poor darling"
Nynic lying still and rigid in her
Eplints, 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 and
the great shadows it cast.
Are you asleep, Sissy, my own?" said
the little voice.
''No, my darling" Rose bent over the
bed. "Does it want anything? VIII it
have some milk-nice fzzy milk?'
Moves, but ] want to hear the
nightingale, Sissy. Why doesn't he be-
Ein2 Isn't il lateT
"Yes, my sweetheart, but perhaps the
nightingale's got such a 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! 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
out the light. Perhaps he doesn't like
to sing till he's sure I'm in bed, and he
couldn't know I've got broken, could he?"
''No. my precious, no. Try TO go to
sleep, and Sissy will wake you if he be-
gins to sing"
But Vynie could net sleep, and by
morning the fever was high. She talked
and nloaned and laughed, but always 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. s"Thcy were sing
ing like mad down by the station" he
sail. "Confound the brutesi / expect
your nightingale isn't coming this year"
Don't" said the girl. 81 believe Vynie
viii have no rest IL 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
fonldnt 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,
know" and pressed her hand.
''You are good" she said, and went
back to the child.
A little fitfu sleep came in the long
night hours of that terrible Sunday,
bul It was broken and feverish, and at
every awakening the little voice, grow
Ing ever weaker. said:
''lsn't 1t dark yet? Won't God send
the nightingale? Oh. Sissy. do want to
hear him."
The old servant, who had been with
tie two sisters since vignie's birth, two
months after the fathers death, had cost
the life Of the mother, insisted on send.
Ing Rose to rest and sat by Vynie's side.
''Nursey," whispered the child, "come
close. VIII you do what say?"
Anything, my precious" said the old
woman, holding the hot little hands in