Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-22

ACTS IN ALI TRUST CA Pa CITIES.
night, the incompanionable night of
forgetfulness.
Bickersteth saw that the travail and
strife had drained life and energy, and
that he must not press the mind and
vitality of this exile of time and the
unknown. too far. He felt that when
the next test came the old man would
either break completely, and sink down
into another and everlasting forgetful-
ness, or tear away forever the veil be-
tween himself and his past, and emerge
into a long lost life. He must shep-
herd his strength and keep him quiet
and undisturbed until they came to the
town yonder in the valley over which
the night was slowly settling down,
and where two women waited. The
two Alices, from both of whom had
gone two lovers into the north, who
had not returned; the daughter living
over again In her young love the pangs
OF suspense through which her mother
had passed, yet who had never told
her love, who had never had more than
the assurance of a fond look and a last
hand-clasp, and broken words of fare
well, that the man loved her; while
her mother had had for a few years
unequaled happiness and love and COM
radeship. Two years since Bickersteth
had gone, and not a sign!
Yet, If she had looked out from her
bedroom window, which faced the north
this Friday night after practice of the
choir, she would have seen on the far
hill a sign; for there burned a fire be-
side which sat two travellers who had
come from the uttermost limits of
snow. But as the fire burned. a beacon
to her heart If she had but known IT,
she went to her rest, the words of a
song she had sung with tears in her
voice and in her heart ringing in her
ears. There was to be a concert after
the service on the coming Sunday night
at which there was to be a collection
for funds to build another mission
house hundred miles farther north,
and she had practiced songs she was
to sing. Her mother had been an anna
teur singer of great power, trained I'M
der the best masters. and she was re-
newing her mothers gift in a voice
behind which lay a hidden sorrow, as
above her smiling there was a shadow
in the eyes that would not away. This
night as she cried to sleep the words
of the song which had moved her kept
ringing in her ears and echoing in her
heart:
When the swallows homeward fly.
And the roses bloom is GER
But her mother, looking out into the
night, saw on the hill the fire. burn
ing like a star. where she had never
seen a fire set before, and a hope shot
into her heart for her daughter, a hope
that had famed up and died down so
often during the past year. Yet she
had famed with her life breath every
such glimmer of hope when it came,
and now she went to her rest saying,
perhaps he will come tomorrow" In
her ears, too, rang the words of the
song which had ravished her ears that
night, the song she had sung the night
before her husband, Dyke Allingham,
had gone with Franklin to the polar
seas
When the swallows homeward fly
Next morning, as she and her daugh-
ter looked out over the valley toward
the north, words flashed into her mind
which she had not thought of for many
q year; since, indeed, her own mother
had passed away. with them on her
lips: Mine eyes look toward the hills
from whence cometh my help" She
was happier all that day, and the next,
and she knew not, or thought not, why.
AS she and her daughter entered the
little church on this S'--7av evening
two men came slowly toward the town
with solitary dog, and both raised
bell calling to prayer. In the eyes of
the younger man there was a look
which has come to manv in this world
returning from hard enterprise and
great dangers, to the familiar streets,
the friendly faces of men of their kin
and clan, to the lights of home.
An hour later the two walked slowly
toward the church from the little tav-
ern where they had put their things.
MI Il. e =
and Bickersteth, who knew that the
two whom he most wanted to see on
earth would be at evening service,
drew the old man thither. The service
was over, but the concert had begun.
The church was full, and there were
people in the porch, but these made
way for the-two strange figures, and
as Bickersteth was recognized by two
or three men, place was found for them
inside. The old man stared round him
in a confused and troubled way, but
his motions were quiet and patient,
and he looked like some old Viking,
ere he went hence. They had entered
in a pause in the concert, but now two
ladies came forward to the chancel
step and one with her hands clasped
before her began to sing
When the swallows homeward fly,
And the roses bloom Is Ger,
And the nightingales sweet song
In the woods is heard no more.
1t was Alice-Alice the daughter-and
the mother, the other Alice,
Joined in the refrain. At sight of them
Bickersteth's eyes had filed. not with
tears, but with a cloud of feeling, so
that he went blind. There she was, the
girl he loved. Her. voice was ringing
in his ears. In his own joy for one in
slant he had forgotten the old man be-