Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-09-10
! The Daily Short Story
oREooRY's VISITOR.

hospital and wondered how his opera
ltion on the morrow would turn out.
Would it give him back health and
strength. or would there he resolute-
ly turned his thoughts into brighter
Ichannels.
To distract his mind he looked out Of
1.-THE window near his bed and wished
himself in the busy street below. 1t
was Saturday afternoon and the air was
clear and bright. the sky vivid blue;
the well world must be enjoying itself.
What was Ethel doing, he wondered.
Was she at the matinee. the golf links
or one of her club meetings?
At this moment white capped nurse
came in and skillfully ministered to his
wants. AS she went out Gregory tried
to picture Ethel in a sickroom and
could not. He had never been able to
persuade himself that there was in her
nature much of womanly sympathy.
She was too reserved, too stately, and
then she had never been i'll a day in
her life, she had told him. Perhaps
that was why she was cold and as
averse to showing emotion as the crest
of a snow covered mountain is ire
sponsive to the rays of the sun.
No, she would not do in Il sickroom
at all, Gregory declared to himself,
and the next instant began to wish
that there were the slightest chance of
her coming to see him.
| He decided upon considering the mat
ter that she might visit a sick man
with her mother, of course, were the
| invalid her promised husband, but he
| felt quite sure she would never set
| aside conventionality for one who was
merely friend.
| Besides, she was too busy. She was
success in society and always had
scores Of engagements. Well, he would
not want to see her if she brought her
mother with her and the two of them
sat in a row and talked commonplace.
But if only Ethel would come alone
and slip her hand in his and say some
thing soothing to him
He turned suddenly with a restless
movement that started the pain again.
He thought it would go away in a mo-
ment, but it did not. Instead it grew
to an intolerable ache that burned and
throbbed cruelty. 1t seemed to Gregory
that he could not stand it. He writhed
under the agony until the sweat stood
out on his forehead and tears came into
his eyes.
After awhile the pain lesscned little,
and Gregory lay white and weak and
thought how unjust and cruel it was
that people must suffer so. AS his
glance wandered through the door of
his private room to the ward on the
other side of the hall, he remembered
having read somewhere that Pain is
the only universal experience" He had
never realized the truth of the words
until now. Pain was universal, and
none escaped it. Each one of the merry,
careless crowd in the outside world
must one day leave work and pleasure
and learn to endure.
Suddenly his own pain came back,
and Gregory bore it until he hated him.
self and his life and wished that the
surgeons knife might end it all next
day. After all, it was a good world TO
be out of, place where suffering was
the only thing to be counted on, where
ones friends could enjoy themselves
while He turned his head with a
sigh that was half a sob and looked out
of the window again.
The sunshine was less bright now,
and the fall air had grown so keen that
Gregory watched fieecy white clouds
sail across a square sea of blue he be-
came aware of rustic of silk and
faint odor of perfume. \ second later
Ethel stood before him.
She did not speak. but as she looked
down at his thin, pain racked body,
which before his accident had been
conspicuous for its splendid strength,
and saw his tears and look of suffering
great drops gathered in her own eyes.
She sat down beside the bed and.
putting one hand in his and the other
on his hot forehead. began to repeat
softly the Twenty-third Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd; 1 shall
not want"
Gregory was not n religious man, but
the words Gained his discomfort as if
by magic. They seemed like cool rain
after hot. sitting day, and their beau
ty and truth sank deep into his trou-
bled soul.
"'IIe makoth me to lie down in green
pastures; he leadeth me Leside the still
waters
When the psalm was ended. Gregory
did not thank her. He waited mo-
ment and then said wonderingly, eth
ell, you love mel"
Indeed, indeed yes" the girl whis-
pered
81 can be brave now" he declared.
Don't run away, dear" There was a
glad note in his tired voice. please
stay little while. and won't you say
that psalm again? It's got such a
soothing swing to it,
So Ethel began the hymn, but be-
fore she had gone far her voice seemed
to die away in the distance, and Greg
DRY fell asleep.
He always declared afterward that
he did not really awake until the oper-
alton was over, and he saw her bend
ing over him, this time with joy in her