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

but that's all they know. l wouldn't
change places with any man. So Ions
as he leaves me you, Pllnever doubt thai
God loves me-"
The girl sighed and look of pair
quivered moment about her lips.
"Take me up, father" she said half ar
hour after, as they sat before the bright
fire together.
No mothers touch could have beer
more tender than that rough mans as
he lifted the little, twisted form into his
arms and laid the sunny head carefully
against his bosom. She rested there for
a while silently, looking fondly up into
his face, and now and then touching his
cheeks gently with her thin fingers. At
last she said, with an air, earnest yet
slightly hesitating:
"You do believe God loves you, don't
you father?"
eyes, lamb, yes. so long as he leaves
me you"
"But if He didn't leave me-" she per-
sisted, wouldn't you believe that too,
was because He loved your"
The mans face darkened with sud-
den sick terror.
Look here" said he, in a voice of
passionate entreaty, don't talk about
that, don't. 1t couldn't be love, no way
that wouldn't leave you. You're all I've
got, child-all. God don't take away
all, does He? That amt love"
The girl stretched her hand up and
drew it around his neck, and laid her face
on his shoulder to hide the tears she
could not keep back. But she made no
answer. After while he asked sud
den question, breathlessly, as if a suspi-
cion had pierced him with pang too
sharp to be borne.
"Has doctor Peters been here today,
Eunice?"
She trembled little, but she answered
quietly:
Eyes, father"
'And he says you're going, does he,
the way your mother went? Child don't
you believe him! You shan't go. My
love will keep you alive. Hasn't it kept
You now fourteen years? Why the
doctor said you wouldn't live the first
time he laid you in my arms! But you
have lived and here you are, and here I'll
hold you. Hasn't my love kept you so
long?'
"Your love and Gods love, father
but what if He thinks, now, that its time
for ME to go home?'
And then they sat silent, for a long still
hour, and the wood fire burned brightly,
and now and then brand dropped on
the hearth and that and the storm out
side were the only sounds that broke the
stiffness, save when, once or twice, a
great gasping sob bore up from shuffiing
Dams deep chest. At last he bent over
and turned the girls face toward him,
and looked in it with eager, hungry eyes.
eth be sorry world, lamb" he said,
vixen you're not in it-when there's
nobody waitin' at the door and no light
burnin in the window"
She looked up, her blue eyes fearful.
Father" she said gently, don't
you know you've told me sometimes
how the thought that l was waitin'
made it easy for you to get home,
when the storms drove ever so hard. and
kept you from wantin' to turn into store
or tavern"
eyes, lamb; but what'll keep me on my
way when you're gone ?" he asked bitter
ly. After Doctor Peters went away to-
day 1 wondered if it wasn't Gods love
that was going to take me to the heaven
" home, so as to make it easier for you
to come. I'll wait for you to come. I'll
wait for you there, father; and 1 won't
be lame any more, and I'll come to meet
you when you get on that threshold-as
l never could here-strong and free,
father, strong and free. Won't it make
it easy for you to come on in spite of
storms, and not turn aside by the way
when you know I'm waiting there, just
as sure as ever waited here ?"
But the father said nothing. He only
held her head against his aching heart
with a grasp that almost hurt her, as if
to ease his pain-held her till bedtime
came, and then carried her to her room,
and left her there with long, sad, silent
kiss. Once alone, the passion of his
agony clutched him in its grasp, but he
suffered no sound to escape him which
should reach her ears. Rigid as stone he
sat before the fire, and never needed when
the room grew cold and the last brand
burned out and fell into gray ashes.
After that night he never returned again
to the subject. He saw that she failed
every day, but he could not talk about
Him, and she understood him too well to
urge him. Every day he went to his
work; now was not the time to fail, when
she needed unwonted luxuries, and might
need them no one knew how long. Every
night he came to her, mis- face pallid with
apprehension. At last she grew too
weak to sit up any more, and lay pa
tiently on her little bed, bearing without
a moan her torturing pain, and never
forgetting at night to have lamp put in
the window-the beacon light for the
father.
Just at the last there was time when
all knew that the end was near That
week her father did not get to his work.
There was money enoughfor all that she
would ever need in this world. and more.
So motionless, except when he could do
something for her comfort, he sat all day
long by her pillow and watched her, save
when sometimes his agony grew too
mighty to be borne, and he had to rush
away from her, out under the desolate
sky where the winds were blowing, and
shrek out the madness of his woe to the
pitiless heavens. Eunice watched him,
too, in her turn, with loving, anxious,
searching gaze, but she saw no hope in
his face She knew that he was harden
ing his heart There came time when
he was with her alone. The woman who
had come to wash had fallen asleep in
the other room, Dan would not wake
her he was greedy Of every moment in