The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-09


exactly like silver rain drops on a golden
roof and all around this lady and this
bcdstead and this bell was "A big square
shadowy room with smutty fireplace,
four small pancd Windows and n chintzy
wall paper showered profuse,y with high
handled baskets of lavender flowers over
which s.rancr green birds lowered
languj.E
The Sick-a-Bed Lady herself was as
Old as 20. hut she did not look more
than Is with her little wistful white
face against the creamy pillows and
her soft brown hair braided in two thick
pgtails and tied with great pink bows
behind each ear.
When the S!ck-a-Bed Lady fit like
sitting up high agalns' her pillows. she
could look out a'ross the footboard
through her opposite w.ndow Now
through hat oppo. :o vcllw was a
marvellous vista, an Old fashioned gar
den. millions oe niles oc ocean and then
France. And when The wind was in
jJst the RICH; direction there wa a
perfectly wonderful smell to be smelled;
part Of 1t was cinnamon pink and
part Of it was salt sea weed, but most
of 1t. OF course. INSURANCE.
There were. days and days, too. when
any one with sense could feel hat the
waves beat perk.ly against the shore
with a very s,rons French accent and
that all ones French verbs, particularly
Jaime. Tu aimes, II alme," We're COM
ing home to res. What else was there
to think about in bed but funny things
like that?
!! was the cd Doctor who had brought
the Sick -a-Bed Lady to tn, big white
house at the edge of the ocean and
placed her IN the cool. quaint room with
its front windows quizz.ng dreamily
out to sea and its side windows Ctlddled
close to I've curving village street. 1t
was long, tiresomc, dangerous journey.
and he Sick-a-l}ed Lady in feyerish
fancy had moaned: 81 shall die, | shall
die. shall die" every step Of the way
but, after all, it was the old Doctor
who did the dying. Just like snap
of the finger he went at the end of
two weeks. and the Sick-a- Bed Lady
rallied to the shock with piaintive
Seems TO me he was in an awful
hurry" and fell back on her soft bed
into days of Inconsistencies that were
broken only by r!utous visions day and
night of an Oh man rushing frantically
up 10 great white hrOne yelling:
zone, two three for m"self."
out of this trouble the Sick a. Bed
Lady woke one day TO find herself quite
alone and quite alive. She often felt
alone before. but it was a long time
Since she had felt alive.
The world seemed very pleasant. The
flowers on the wall paper were still an
wilted and the green paper birds hung
airiy without fatigue. The room vas
full of most enticing odor of cinnamon
pinks, and by raising herself up in bed
the merest trihe she could get a smell
of good salt, a smell which somehow
you couldn't get unless you actually
saw the ocean hut just as she was
lahorlously Juggling herself up an atom
higher, trying to lind the enest,
weeniest sniff Of France. every,hlng
went suddenly black and silver h fore
her eyes ana she fell down. down. as
much as forty miles into Nothing At
All.
When she woke up again all limp and
wappsy here was a Young Mans Face
in Tie fouinuprd az the bed. just an
isolated unconncci Il sort OF face that
might have Blossom d from the foot
board or might hay, been merely a
mirage on the horizon. Whatever it
was though, It kept staring at her
fixedly, balancing itself all the while
most perfectly on It's chin.
1t was funny sight. and while the
Sick-a-B,d Lady was pickering her
forehead trying 40 think out what It
all meant the Young Mans Face smiled
at her and said Boo" and the Sick-a-
Bod Lady tiptilted her chin weakly and
said "Boo Yourself" Then the Sick
a-Bed Lady fell into her fearful stupor
again and the Young Mans Face ran
home as fast as it could to tell its Best
Friend that the Sick-a-Bed Lady had
spoken her first sane word for five
weeks. He thought it was a splendid
victory. but when he trie d to explain it
to his friend he found that Boo your
sell" seemed a fatuous proof OF So
s'artlinC n truth, and was obliged 70
conu"pMlse with considerable dignity
on ,he statement: "Well, Of course IT
wasn't so much wha, she said as the
way she said it,
For days and days that followed the
Sick-a-bed Lady was conscious of moth
,ng except the Young Mans Face on the
fnotboard Of the bed. II never seemed
to wabble, il never seemed to waNer, but
Just STAYED there perfectly balanced on
the point of its chin watching her
gravely with its blue, blue eyes. There
was cleft in its chin too that you
could have stroked with your finger If
You could have. OF course there were
some times when she went to sleep and
some times when she just seemed to
go ont like a candle, hut whenever she
came back from anything there was al
ways the Young Mans Face for COM
fort
The SICK a-Bcd Lady was so sick that
she thought all over her body instead
of In her head, so that IL was very hard
to concentrate any particular thought
in her mouth but at last one afternoon
with "A mighty struggle she opened her
half closed eyes. looked right in the
Young Mans Face and said: Got any
arms?"
The Young Mans Face nodded per-
dectly politely and smiled as he raised
two strong, lean hands to the edge of
the footboard and hunChed h shoulders
obligingly across the sky line,
"IIow do you feel?' he asked very
gently.