The Afro-American advance. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1899-19??, 1900-06-16
0sA4A4;AAiA.Ss;a.Sssa.Si 6
= y
: P A R A D | S E s
= BY Eloise Jane Huff z
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BY Eloise Jane Huff

(F'rom the New Orleans Times Democrat.
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 unselfishness,
when its lifting, dancing measures
broke into the deep melody of an an
them, and as she drifted back into the
light again. thus il 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
a. Life held Happiness-that love OF
Life should be a talisman to stay the
hand of Death.
Thrice in the woman's threescore
wears 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 wondrous elo-
quence and great witchery.
When first he came il was just at the
dawn of day. just as the east was flush
inc in the faint rays of the rising sun
and the birds twittered in the trees;
shod with silence he g,ided through the
quiet halls and still hushed household,
among he watchers with wet faces and
terror-touched eyes. All unseen.
though they looked for his coming. he
went in the gray of the spring morn
ing into the sweet sanctity of the girls
chamber. Pausing on the threshold,
as if 10th TO enter an unbidden guest,
he noted all its Wilderness and its dainty
simplicity; noted, too, on the muslin
draped dressing table "A tiny silver
frame, with the pictured face of
youth, an earnest, grave face; and
Death smiled at the story ii told. But
he went TO the bed where she lay as one
asleep, until she seemed TO be already
Deaths own. He stood beside her and
looked with sad eyes and cold, impas-
sive brow at the child who was his for
the taking. and il was in tenderness
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
had left neither song nor sigh. the slen-
der little hands. so weak and fragile,
and he stooped and touched her with
his pulseless 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, gift which human love and care
cannot bestow. ! will take you TO a
and where you will never lose your
{outh; ] viii save YOU from Life. Look
alto the faces OF the aged. my little
maid. and read there of all that Life
writes upon faces once a 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
ambition; the delrium that is love; the
chill that Is regret; the ceaseless an
gnish of sorrow and disappointment
that dims the eyes fixed upon the things
Of this world"
His voice had almost the wooing and
the pleading OF lover. as he saw in her
awakened eyes the cloudless, I'M
troubled soul OF 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. doye-like eyes;
she quietly unclasped his hold and laid
her fingers caressingly upon some faded
roses on the bed beside her. and she
said, as one repeats words of a 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 chaRgeless. tranquil hap
pness' And then. as Death became
The more imperative. as he again
touched her with his icy fingers, she
looked across the room until she met
he pictured face and something like
aFmness gathered and settled upon her
ealidish features. THAT is not Para
ss Of which you tell me- Then she
hfsiiated. but looking straight and
Greet into the close. stern face Of
Death. little faint flush creeping into
A+r cheeks and sweet. unafraid wom-
aniiness growing upon her as she
poke: That Is not Paradise. Para
use Is here. because John Is here"
md Death went his WAY with empty
arms. and when she walked the watch
s's said that she wandered. still she
vas feverish and distraught. although
hfF eyes we're placid and clear and her
,"'et even and sweet. for she said: NO.
vii not 90 with you: Paradise is
here
y VAS noon. still summer noon
AFn Death eame again. meeting. a.