The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1900-06-15
"a oiAO 90
! P A R A D l S E
BY Eloise Jane Huff.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

by Permission)
THE young mother had been into the
dim shadows where Death and
Life struggle, and win or lose, just at
the happiest, sweetest, fullest hour
which had been hers, when love took
ON new and tender unseltishness,
when its Hitting, dancing measures
broke into the deep melody of an an
them. and, as she drifted back into the
Nght again, thus it was that she half
wished and half prayed in her still
| childish way that Death would never
take this woman-child Of hers as long |
as Life held Happness-that love OF
Life should be talisman to stay the
hand of Death.
Thrice in the woman's threescore
wears Death had come to WOO her from
his brother Life ont into the far be-
yond. that unknown land, that here
after which he called Paradise. and OF
which he spoke with wondrous eio-
quence and great witchery.
When first he came il was just at the
dawn of day. just as the east was flush
ing in the faint rays of the rising sun
and the birds twittcred in the Trees
shod with silence he glided through the
ouiet halls and still hushed household,
among the watchers with wet faces anu
terror-touched eyes. All unseen
though they looked for his coming ne
went in the gray of the spring morn
ING into the sweet sanctlty OF the girl
chamber. Pausing on the threshold
| ttnll
he not ed all its whiteness and its dainty
,implicity; noted, too, on the musiih-
%raped dressing table tiny silver
frame. with the pictured face OF
youth. an earnest, grave face; ana
Death smiled at the story il told. But
. he went 10 the bed where she lay as one
asleep. until she seemed TO be a.reaoy
f, Death's own. He stood beside her ana
hooked with sad eyes and cold. impas-
sive brow at the child who was his for
I tho taking. and il was in tenderness
and with love and pity surprising me
human that he gazed on the falr young
. gace. like an untouched lily leaf, the
a unwritter brow. the sweet chlldish
h mouth. upon which the kisses OF love
had left neither song nor sigh, the sleh'
I der little hands. SO weak ami fraSiie
G and he STONED and touched her with
:. his pulseioss fingers as he saiu ",
q child. you are ready, you are wiling :
o come with me? for ] am your friend
md Mil give YOU eternal calm ant
,eace. Gift which human love and care
cannot bcstow. ! Will take you 10
land where YOU will never lose you
W Youth: will save YOU from Life. Lool
;pto The faces of the aged, my nttl'
maid. and read there Of all that LII
writes upon faces once as fresh anu IA
- as YOURS: all that love entails all ina
heightened years give TO those WI
"a wait TOO long for me; the fever that J
~ ambitions: the delirium that is love; IN
~ chill that is regret; the cease,ess an
" guish OF sorrow and disappolh men
that dims the eyes fixed upon the thins
e ofsthis world"
Ills voice had almost the woolng an
the pleading Of lover, as he saw IN nc
awakened ewes the cloudless, Ill
troubled soul of child
"From all this will save You. Com
a. with me now before Life has taugf
80 YOU TO yearn for me, for come not
y yorr call. however sorrowing an
"a. loud" u,
M The girl gazed upon him with gre'
:, wonder in her gentle. dove-like eye
~ she quietly unclaspcd his hold and ia
on her fingers caressingly upon some fads
roses on the bed beside her. and 81
>" said. as one repeats words OF foreia
tongue. all unlearned in their meaning
20 Regret. sorrow. disappointment
what are these?"
death went on: "Comc. my chill
core with me 10 Paradise, to the lai
by where all is serenity. all Is JOY ana co
am tent: where the days are all one as
not other in their changeless. tranquil ma
bed niness." And then. as Death becar
the the more imperative. as he aga
ok. touched her with his icy fingers, >
! of looked across the room until she n
Ter, the pictured face, and something y
dc. Armness gathered and settled upon
I childish features. THAT is not la
ken disc OF which you tell me-" Then .
cry hesitated, but, looking straight .
tea. direct into the close. stern face
led. Death, a little faint flush creeping II
ual. her cheeks and a sweet, unafraid wo
,ver nnlincss growing upon her as
ling smoke: "Tbat Is not Paradise. ia
Ave disc Is here, because John Is here"
hils And Death went his way with emf
eat. arms. md when she walked the wnt
for ere said that she wandered, still
wed was feverish and distraught, altho,
her eyes we're placid a~delesr and