The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1907-05-10
WAITING.

WAITING.
He plodded on through sleet and snow,
| with step awkward and yet a certain
resolution in it. Other men might have
turned aside, unwilling to breast the full
force of such a storm. Not so with Daniel
Newton" Shutting Dan," his fellow
workmen called him. He was the
favorite among them, silent, brooding
sullen fellow they thought him-but he
lived life of which they understood very
little. 1t had been consecrated for four
teen years to one object, and there was
in it an element of chivalrous self sacrifice
of which he was utterly unconscious him.
self He passed store, where some of
his comrades were laughing, then the
tavern, with its door invitingly open,
and the bright red light streaming out of
it cheerfully, into the murky gathering
night. For minute he was tempted just
to go in and warm himself a little in
that glow; but he shook his shaggy head,
and turned away.
''She will be waiting" he said, as he
drew up the collar of his coarse coat
'little lamb, she'll be waiting" And
then, as if the thought had given him
new lie, he plodded on again valiantly.
On through sleet and snow. till he came
at last in front of a low cottage, stand
ing in the midst of square lot. A light
streamed forth from its front window
over the white pathway. 1t had shone
there for him every winter night-fall for
many year, and he never saw that
beacon ray without blessing his little
lamb" over and over again. How warm
she had kept his heart! And yet among
the hard things in his life, people who
took the trouble to speak of him at all,
always reckoned that crippled child"
When his wife died, and left him her
hour old baby to bring up as best he
could they commiserated him, and
wondered what he was to do. And
when it was found that the child would
never be able to walk, they thought his
burden was heavier than he could bear.
But he knew-only he could not have
told them or reason about it-what had
been his sweet compensation. At first,
to be sure it was hard blow when he
found that the little one he loved was
never to be quite like others-that she
never would come toddling down the
path to meet him, clingirg to his hard
hands with rosy little ingers-but this
very grief about her made his love
all the more tender. She was the one
idea of his life. The only absorbing feel
ing he had ever known was for her. He
had liked her mother we'll enough, but it
had been an ordinary, commonplace re-
gard, until she died and left this tender
blue-eyed blossom, which he was afraid
to touch. The child consecrated the
mothers memory, and he cared for her
moredead than he ever cared for her living.
But little Eunice filled his heart full, and
| sat on her throne queen regent forever. He
had her nursed carefully, and he cheerful
ly gave up every hour of life to the task
of being father and mother to her, both
in one. When she was old enough to sit
in little wheeled chair, in which she
could trundle herself about the room,
his delight knew no bounds. In summer
she was always at the open door to
meet him, and in winter her CHEEKY lamp
burned always at the cottage window.
| When she was twelve years old, she
herself proposed to keep house for him.
| There were three rooms in their little
cottage, all on the same floor, besides
the unfinished garnet overhead. From
room to room of these three she could
trundle herself around She contrived to
| do good many household tasks; and,
with a neighbor hired to come and help
each day, she managed nicely, and was the
proudest of little housewives. Of late,
however, she had been growing weaker,
and her father had insisted that size
should not be left alone at all. So the
neighbor who helped her stayed all day
now, but went home at night when Dan
came; for he was not ready to give up
the pleasure of having his darling quite
to himself in the long evening.
Now as he entered the yard, his steps
grew quicker. All that was shuddering
and uncertain passed out of his manner,
and he walked with the strong, firm
tread of one sure of his welcome. Draw
which the light illumined-a face of al
most ideal beauty. Not the features so
much, for when you analysed them, they
were far from regular and bore a cur
ious likeness to his own; but the great
blue eyes were full of light. the color
came and went on her cheeks in fair,
pink hushes, and the skin was trans
parent as the most delicate crystal
Around this wistful, living, waiting face
foated mass of soft, golden hair, like
the halos you see sometimes in old pic
lures around the brows of saints. When
she saw him, the blue eyes kindled, then
the face disappeared from the window,
and when he opened the door there she
was in front of it, with her lips uplifted
for his kiss. The neighbor stood by, her
things on ready to go, and it struck Dan
there was a look of pity on her face.
You'd better not get too near the
child with those wet things on" she said
kindly "She's but weak little thing,
| and she must not take cold"
He started back remorsefully, and did
not go up to the girl again until he had
taken all his wet things off in his own
room ard made himself dry and tidy,