The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-03-17

THE CIRCLE
OF
LIGHT.
=9ooeR %E9ooSP @9oosP
By Lucille Lowell

~
Day after day John knight lay on
his hospital cot and glowered at the
wall Nights when he could not
sleep he turned his face outward and
glowered into the shadowy room. His
eyes then rested with peculiar bitter
ness on the little night-lamp. A tal-
ry" lamp. his nurse called it. But to
his sick fancy it was wicked fairy
one that Knocked his SCARED ana
MANNED body, showing it to him IN
a light infinitely more cruel than the
suns. Knight hated the night-lamp.
And sometimes he hated the strong,
serene woman who had nursed him
back to life.
why did you do it?" he burst
forth, one day I've got no mother,
no father. 0 Miss Swan, if only you
had let me slip away out of it ALL"
Il couldn't do that" she said, SIM
ply.
"You mean it wouldn't have been
business 2" asked Knight, with bitter
humor.
Miss Swan nodded, but her smile
softened the brusque movement. she
could not speak just then. Weeks
she had tended Knight ard brooded
over him with the mute tenderness
of a mother AS his body mended she
had longed to break the silence IN
which his spirit lay. Now he had
broken it himself with an angulshed
cry,-and she gathered herself togeth-
er to keep him from sinking back in
to that silence which had been but
fuel to the flame of his despair.
Some day." she began, trying to
speak in an Unconditional tone, If you
are the boy think, you will be glad
to be alive"
"'Boyn" Knight echoes. why not
child? Or babe would hit me better.
Babe then" assented Miss Swan,
with all your life before you"
There was a dry pause.
That's one way to put it, Knight
said, at last.
His expression was not encouraging.
Miss Swan did not irritate him by in
sistence, for she saw something be-
sides dumb despair imaged in his eyes,
and, knew that he would not speak If
she said nothing. She waited, and his
words came Not in flood, bringing
relief to his overcharged heart, as she
had hoped, but YEARLY, as If he had
rejected finally the hint or hope she
had held out to him.
please don't talk that kind of rot
to me again." lie said. II shall never
be glad to be alive-never, never,
neyer!" He closed his eyes, then
opened them resolutely and went on:
"As soon as picked up my senses
that first day and found myself here
and-and-saw myself, prayed to
die. shall not die. And I've
stopped praying. I've nothing to pray
for now. | shall exist good many
years, prabably for I'm only %, and
a tough nut, as you know; but don't
saw that | have life before me!' and
in spite of the stress upon him
Knight laughed. Then he said, with
a cold smile, Perhaps you will out
line that life of mine as you see it."
Miss Swan hesitated, feeling for
words to express her thought. Il
can't say things" she began, humbly,
"but | have a feeling that your life
will be just what you make it. You
see. YOU have nothing more to fear
from fate"
Knights pale lips curved in a wnim-
steal smile. mo, I've got all that's
coming to me-in a lump" he said,
;mpressibly.
Miss Swan was middle-aged, but for
an instant she struggled with tears
as a girl might. Then she looked at
Knight without wavering. Il meant
that" she said. 1.-THE great and small
things that come by ones or twos or
even threes to other people, and wor
nv and dishearten and even madden
then. can never come to you. You are
beyond or above destiny. You-stand
free!'''
"And crippled" Knight supplement
ed.
"only in body" she corrected, gent
lv