Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1900-09-04
81 So 60 N;a.9A1,Ass,A1 SAk
, ? A r A D | S E Z
{ BY Eloise Jano Huff. E
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

(From the New Orleans Times Democrat,
by Pcrmission.)
THE young mother had been into the
dim shadows where Death and
Life struggle, and win or lose. just at
the happi, 1t, sweetest, fullest hour
which had been hers, when love took
on new and tender unseltishness,
when its lifting, dancing measures
broke into the deep melody of an an
them, and, as she drifted back into the
light again, thus it was that she half
wished and half prayed in her still
childish way that Death would never
take his Woman-child of hers as long
rs Life held lIappiness--that love of
Life should be ialisman to stay the
hand Of Death.
Thrice in the woman's thrcescore
years Death had come to WOO her from
his brother Life out into the far be-
yond, that unknown land. that here
after which he called Paradise. and of
which he spoke with a wondrous clo-
uuence and great Witchery
When first he came il was just at the
dawn Of day. just rs the east was flush
ing in the faint rays Of the rising sun
and the birds tWittercd in the trees;
shod with silence he glidcd through the
quiet halls and still hushed house hold,
among the watchers with wet faces and
tcrror-touchcd eyes. All unseen,
though they looked for his coming. he
went in the gray Of the spring morn
ing into he sweet sinctitF Of the girl
chamber. l'ausinc on tie Tires hold
as if 10th 10 enter IN unh,Gt,cn guest.
he noted all its whitcHyss a}t its dainty
simplicity; noted, toe, on TIE lnuslin-
draped dressing table a tiny silver
frame, with the pictured face OF a
youth, an earnest, grave face; and
Death smiled at the story it told. But
he went to the bed where She !aN as one
asleep, until she seemed to be already
Deaths own. lie stood beside her and
looked with sad eyes and cold, impas-
sivc brow at the child who was his for
and with love and pity surprising the
human that he gazed on the fair Young
face, like an untouched lily leaf, the
unWritten brow, the sweet childish
mouth. upon which the kisses of love
bad left neither song nor sigh. the slen"
der little hands. so weak and fragile,
and he stopped and touched her with
his pulsclcss fingers as he said: MY
child, you are ready you are willing to
come with me? for | am your friend,
and will give you eternal calm and
peace, a gift which human love and care
cannot bcstow | will take you to a
land where you will never lose your
youth; | will save you from Life. Look
into the faces of the aged, my little
maid, and read there of all that Life
writes upon faces once as fresh and fair
as yours: all that love entails; all that
heightened years give TO those who
wait too long for me; the fever that is
an bition; the delrium That is love; the
chill that is roget; the censcless an
guish of sorrow and disappointment
that dims the eyes fixed upon the things
of This world"
us voice had almost the wooiny and
the pleading of a lover, as he saw in her
awakened eyes the cloudlcss, UNI
troubled soul of a child.
"From all this will save you. Come
with me now before Life has taught
you to yearn for me, for come not at
your call, however sorrowing and
loud"
The girl gazed upon him with great
wonder in her gentle, dovc-likc eyes;
she quietly unclaspcd his hold and laid
her fingers caressingly upon some faded
roses on the bed beside her, and she
said, as one repeats words Of foreign
tongue. all unlearned in their meaning:
"Regret, sorrow, disappointment
what are these?'
Death went on: Come, my child;
come with me to Paradise. to the land
where all is serenity, all is JOY and con-
tent; where the days are all one as an
other in their changeless. tranquil hap
piness." And then, rs Death became
the more Imperative, as he again
touched her with his icy fingers, she
looked across the room until she met
the pictured face, and something like
firmness gathered and settled upon her
childish features. "That is not Para
disc of which you tell me-" Then she
hesitated, but, looking straight and
direct into the close, stern face of
Death. little faint flush creeping into
her checks and n sweet, unafraid won-
anliness growing upon her as she
spoke: THAT is not Paradise. Para
disc is here, because John is here"
And Death went his way with empty
arms. and when she walked the watch
ers said that she wandered, still she
was feverish and distraught, although
her eyes were placid and clear and her