Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-10-22
A Dream Melody.
TT SUPPOSE I've been ill! wonde,

II I've been Ill! | wonder
l what's the matter with me?"
Colin Stuart opened his eyes, and,
struggling into a sitting posture, saw
that he was in the shabby bed-sitting-
room in the dull side street which for
a dreary time nov had been his
"home."
He was still only half conscious and
painfully weak, but gradually his brain
cleared a little, and bit by bit memory
came back.
$50 she didn't turn me out, after
all! She must have looked after me,
too, and found money for medicine and
food. Her bark was worse than her
bite, poor creature! | daresay she's
hard pressed enough herself at times,
especially if many Of her dodgers are as
improbable as I am.
How much did l owe her, now, be-
fore | was taken i'll? How long have
l been lying here in delirium? and,
worst problem of all, what am l to
do with myself now I have my senses
back again? Life was pretty rough
before; it will be impossible now"
Another glance round the room
freshened his memory again-the open
piano, the loose sheets of torn music
carelessly strewn all around. How
ever long the illness had been in dura-
ton, no loving hand tended him, only
grudging service (given, perchance, as
an alternative to an inquest) had been
bestowed on him.
II remember! I'd reached the end Of
all things; not n penny left-no
work-season flat-couldn't sell music
or get it sung, not n solitary engage
ment through all those awful weeks.
Only the clothes I was wearing left!
not a friend in the whole world |
could turn to for help-bread and wa,
ter for a week-then water without
the bread, with the F~renchman's ex-
p%erience to follow; no sooner had I
taught the horse to live on one straw
a day than the brute spited me and
died!
But I didn't die! No, here l am, I'M
fortunately alive. I've been under the
waters Of fate once, and like other
bodies risen to the surface. I shall go
down again directly. Mrs. Wilcox
thinks she can turn me out without
being held up for ~manslaughter or any,
thing of that kind. Shall l rise the
second time through the casual ward
or be allowed to die quietly in the gut
ter? Heaven knows; | don't"
Another long, weary pause, at the
end of which the landlady popped her
head in at the door, gave a grunt
which might either have been satisfac-
ton Or disgust on realizing the in
valid was conscious-better; then
dived back to the kitchen, emerging
therefrom a little later with a basin of
very weak soup and a piece of bread,
which she set down with a clatter on
q small table near the bed with the re-
mark:
"You can feed yourself again now;
the time it's wasted every day a-look-
ing after you no money could ever pay
for"
"I'm sure I'm very grateful" was
the shamed reply. Have I been i'll
long?"
Morn two weeks ungraciously,
"an' me scared to death with all this
talk O. smallpox about"
Colin started violently.
But it can't be that-there is no
rash"
Good thing for you it wasn't" was
the sharp retort. TITS delirium, the
doctor says. You've been APPLYING
that there piano to death, but there
amt enough on those bones to suit
me; it's all noise an no meat in
pianos. Never no more musicians
take my rooms, and out you, go just
as soon as ever you can set foot to the
ground"
II must owe you an awful lot" he
murmured, brokenly. 81 see medicine,
and food, and wine, besides the rent;
you must be a kind of pantomime fairy
disguised as-as-"
Don't you go poking your fun at
me-" she broke in shrilly. I'm a poor,
hard working, honest woman. Fairy,
indeed. The very idea. What you've
had you've paid for, or, 1t stands to
reason, out you'd have gone long ago."
paid for" blankly; "why, when I
was taken i'll I was behind with my
rent"
"And who'll blame me for paying
myself out of the money in your
pocket?" hectoringly. There you was
a-lying dead ESQ it looked at first) on
the floor, and when the doctor was
fetched, he says food, fire, wine an
good nursing. Who's to pay?' says I,
and he says, You'd better look
amongst his things for his money.
In the meantime, use this giving me
a sovereign. One Of the other dodgers
sat with you while I run for the medi-
cine, an afterward we went through
your things together.
'Ten pounds there was In two five
pound notes, an Is shillings in silver.
I jist got the gentleman to sign his
name to its being all right, which,
thank heaven. he's here an cal prove,
an, in course I took out the three
pounds owing for rent, an paid the