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


Partly undressing, l climbed into
INV rot and lay still for the next half
,our while the doctor held his hand
an nv mothers pulse and the nurse
s,rasd a linen cloth over table and
,1r tour or five lighted candles on it.
rsmember that l was thinking
,,at f Cod sending for my mother
meant that she was to be put into a
bov and buried under the ground it
mas +arrible and cruel, and perhaps If
prayed to Our Lady He would not
and II IN His heart to do so. l was
.rvirg TO do this, beginning, under
nv breath. 20 Holy Virgin, thou art
20 lovely, thou art SO gracious ="
when the nurse said:
Here they are back again
Then 1 heard footsteps outside, and
gong TO the window saw sight
ror unlike that which l had seen on
! the night of the Waits.
The Sacrament.
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.
I knew what it vast was the
Nesssd Sacrament, which they were
| bringing to my mother, and when
| 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
nous ehold-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
group by the door.
Father Dan reused my mother by
calling her 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 It pealed out loudly as II the
soul Of the priest were inspiring him,
After communion he gave my
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 Cod
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 I 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 I were alone once more, and
then she called me into her bed and
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 10 think about, yet it Is all as q
memory of yesterday, while other
events of my life have fioated away to
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 I had said about tbs
convent, and wondered if | would not
IKE to live there always, becoming
one of the good and holy nuns.
must have made some kind OF
protest, for she went on to say how
hard the world was to woman anG
now difficult she had found it.
Not that your father has been to
o.ame-you must never think that,
Mary, yet still
But tears from her tender heart
We're stealing down her face and she
had to stop.
So you see we shall never be part
eo never really. We shall always be
osether. Something tells me that
Wherever you are, and whatever you
are doing, l shall know all about it,
MS comforted me, and I think 1t
somforted my mother also, though
1od knows If it would have done so,
with her dying eyes, she could
nave seen what was waiting for her
1t fills my heart brimful to think
: lf what no