The Portland daily press., 1899-08-11

sleepy any more. Do tell God all about
The old woman knelt by the bedside
and with a faith simple as beautiful as
the child's own told God all about it,
The dusk was deepening. The child
lay with checks scarlet against the white
pillows and shining eyes fixed on the
/ slowly .darkening squares OF the window.
She monucd with pain and the misery Of
slecplessness.
Open the window. nursey, my DEAR
she said softly when the night had al
nost fallen. IL think heard some
thing
When the window was opened. vynie
held her breath and listened to silence
that after n moment was softly broken
BY two or three mellow notes.
rs ft-oh, is It? Nursey'-n
Its the nightingale right enough. my
pet" said the old woman as Rose crept
into the room like n ghost in her white
dressing gown.
"Oh, Sissy. my ownl 1t is-it Isl Gods
not forgotten me. He's going to let me
go to sleep. and | shall hear the night
ingale even when I'm asleep. Listenp'
Again the full notes pierced the soft
darkness.
AtOSc EutHtIcu ueE utlie sister IN uer
arms, and together they listened--vynie
to the song OF the nightingale and Rose
with full heart to the breathing. grad
ually more even and tranquil, of the lit
tie child she held against her bosom.
Shes asleep" said the nurse softly.
IL won't moTe," whispered Rose. ''I'll
stay here. Oh, thank God, thank Godl,,s
Tom came every day to inquire, and 1t
seemed to Rose that he grew paler and
thinner in this anxious time, and every
night the notes OF the nightingale sound
ed from the dark wood-through nights
radiant with clear moonlight and through
the black darkness of night wild with
wind and rain. And Vynie grew stron-
ger and ate and drank and played domi-
nos and was on the highroad to well
being once more.
Then came a night when the nightin-
gale did not sing. Vynie did not miss It;
she slept so sound O. nights now. And on
that night followed day when Tom did
not come, and then another day and an
other. Rose missed him miserably. On
the first day she was angry at his abb
sence: on sthe second, anxious; on the
third she sent the old nurse to see wheth-
er he was i'll.
you'd best go round" said the old
woman when she came back from her
mission. Hes more than i'll. Pneu-
monia or something, and he keeps asking
for you. Go you. I'll stay with the
child. He's got no one with him but his
landlady, a feckless body, il ever there
was one. Go now, my lamb"
So Rose went.
His face showed CHASTITY in the frame
of his disordered hair and of three days
beard.
She came to him and took his hands.
"That woman says I'm dying" he whis-
pered, but vynie's all right, isn't she"
"Yes. yes; but what have you been do
ing? oh, Tom, it isn't my fault, is it,
Tom? / didn't drive you into folly?
That woman says you've been out all
night-eyery night since Vynie's been i'll.
Say it wasn't my doing"
''It was for Yynie," he said. II was
the nightingale, dear. Don't you re-
member how used to call the robins for
you in the winter. 1t was a silly little
thing, but it was all could do for the
dear. And 1t did do her good. You said
So"
He turned aside his head exhausted.
Roses eyes were full of tears. You
staid in that wood all night, every
night? Yon initiated the nightingale in
all the wind and rain? And now
She had crouched by the bed, and laying
her head on her hands she sobbed aloud.
Don't" he said fecbly; lit was moth
ing. just little thing to please the
child"
She lifted her face, flushed and distort-
ed by her violent weeping, and laid 1t
gently against his. He put up feeble
hand and touched her neck.
you're sorry for me-" he whispered.
.'You needn't be. can't even be un-
happy after this. Your face-your dear
FACET don't in the least mind dying
now."
She sprang up. "Dear Tommy own
dear Toni You're not going to die.
Now promise me at once that you win
get well, because vynie and 1 cannot
possibly live without you, my dear,
dear, dear
Tom did not give the promise, but he
did what was better. He got we'll.
When he first saw Vynie, now walking
cheerfully with the crutches that would
soon be laid aside, she told him about the
nightingale.
"And, do you know" she said, SISSY
says he never sang after you got i'll. i
suppose God was so busy taking care of
you that he hadn't time to bother with
naughty nightingales that wouldn't do
their singing. The nightingale sang very
nicely, though. when he was made to.
Only thought after bit he seemed
little husky"
Perhaps he caught a cold," said Tom.
"Some of the nights were very wet"
Perhaps he did-like you, you know"
said Yynie cheerfully. "Well, he was
naughty nightingale. But il he had a
cold hope he had some one as nice as
nursey and sister to look after him, like
they did you"
81 think he had" said Tom.
anyway, shall always love him.
even if he was naughty, because he
helped me to get WELL"
at would make him very happy II he
knew that"
"Do you think he does know?"
eyes. think So"
swell, whether or no." said vynie,
comfortably, '1'll go out in the wood and
tell him ali about it II he sings in that