The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1903-11-06
A Dream MELODY,
1T SUPPOSE I've been i'll! 1 wonder

ut SUPPOSE I've been i'll! wonder
/ what's the matter with me?"
Colin Stuart opened his eyes, and.
struggling into sitting posture, saw
that he was in the: shabby sitting
room in the dull side street which for
dreary time now had been his
home"
He was still only half conscious ana
painfully weak, but gradually his brain
cleared 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 am. r., i
How much did l, owe her, now, be-
fore I was taken i'll? How long have
l been lying here in delirium? and,
worst problem of all. what am 1 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
erudging service (given, perchance, as
an alternative to an inquest) had been
bestowed on him.
Il remember! I'd reached the end OF
oil things; not one penny left-no
work-season flat-couldn't sell music
or get it sung, not one solitary engage
ment through all those awful weeks.
Only the clothes I was wearing left!
not friend in the whole world l
could turn to for help-bread and wa
ter for a week-then water without
the bread, with the Frenchman's ex-
perience to follow; no sooner had l
taught the horse to live on one straw
a day than the brute spited me and
died!
but didn't die! No, here am, un-
AVA IuA0LCAy esAASOs L VIC UCOA Luc
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 rise the
second time through the casual ward
or be allowed to die quietly in the gut
ter? Heaven knows; I 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 little later with a basin of
very weak soup and piece of bread,
which she set down with clatter on
a 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 l been i'll
long?"
Morn two weeks" ungraciously,
IAN 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. 'It's delirium, the
doctor says. You've been a-playins
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 20 Just
as soon as ever you can set foot to the
ground"
Il must owe you an awful lot" he
murmured. br0kenly. II see medicine.
and food, and wine, besides the rent:
you must be kind of pantomime fairy
disguised as-as-"
Don't you go poking your fun at
me-" she broke in shrilly. I'm poor.
hard working. honest woman. Fairy.
indeed. The very idea. What you've
had you've paid for, or. it stands to
reason. out you'd have gone long ago."
.tPaid for" blankly; why, when I
was taken i'll I was behind with my
rent" s $25 & .,. $50 =
And who'll blame me for paying
myself out Of tho money in your
pocket kectoringly. There you was
.a-lying dead $50 1t looked at frstl on