Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-06
TO.DAY'S INSTALLMENT.
Seventeenth Chapter-Continued

r5rtly undressing, | climbed into
m, ,ot and lay still for the next half
..,r White the doctor held his hand
rn NV mothers pulse and the nurse
srraad a linen cloth over table and
plt touy or five lighted candles on it..
remember that ] was thinking
that f God sending for my, mother
meant that she was to be put into a
box and buried under the ground it
was terrible and cruel, and perhaps if
nrayed to Our Lady He would not
find il IN His heart to do SO | was
irving TO do this, beginning, under
nv breath, 20 Holy Virgin, thou art
So lovely thou art so gracious -
when the nurse said
Here they are back again"
Then heard footsteps outside, and
going to the window I saw a sight
not unlike that which ] had seen on
the night of The Waits
The Sacrament.
A group of men were coming to-
ward the house, with Father Dan i'll
the middle of them. Father Dan. with
his coat hung over his arms like a
cloak, was carrying something white
in both hands, and the men we're car
rying torches to light him on his way
knew what it vast was the
Blessed Sacrament, which they were
h.,r t,ey n
Father Dan had come into the room
saving Peace be to this house. and
laid a little white box on the table,
and thrown off his coat, he was wear
ing his priests vestments underneath.
Then the whole of my fathers
household-all except my father him
self-came into my mothers room, in
Guiding Aunt Bridget, who sat with
folded arms in the darkness by the
wall, and the servants, who knelt in a
group by the door.
Father Dan reused my mother by
calling har again, and after she had
opened her eyes he began to read.
Sometimes his voice seemed to be
choked with sobs, as if the heart of
the man were suffering, and some
times II pealed out loudly as II the
soul of the priest were inspiring him.
After communion he gave nv
mother extreme unction-anointing
the sweet eyes which had seen no
evil, the dear lips which had uttered
no wrong, and the feet which had
walked in the ways of God.
All this time there was a solemn
hush in the house like that OF a
church-no sound within except my
fathers measured tread in the room
below, and none without except the
muffled murmur which the sea makes
when it is far away and going out,
When all was over my mother
seemed more at ease, and after ask
ing for me and being told l was in the
cot, she said:
You must all go and rest. Mary
and I will be quite right now"
A few minutes afterward my moth
er and l were alone once more, and
then she called me into her bed ane
clasped her arms about me and l lay
with my face hidden in her neck
What happened thereafter seems to
be too sacred to write Of almost too
sacred to think about, yet it is all as 4
memory of yesterday, while other
events of my life have fioated away t.
the ocean of things that are forgotten
and lost.
Listen, darling" she said, and then
speaking in whispers. she told me she
had heard all l had said about tbs
convent, and wondered if l would no
like to live there always, becoming
one Of the good and holy nuns.
must have made some kind o
protest, for she went on to say how
hard the world was to a woman ant
how difficult she had found it.
Not that your father has been t,
olame-you must never think that
Mary vet still =
But tears from her tender heart
were stealing down her face and she
had TO stop.
So you see we shall never be part
60, never really We shall always be
together Something tells me that
Wherever you are, and whatever you
are doing, l shall know all about it,"
This comforted me, and ! think II
comforted my mother also, though
God knows if it would have done so,
H. with her dying eyes, she could
nave seen what was waiting for her
child.
1t fills my heart brimful to think
. of what happened next.