The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-01-14
BILLY's ROSE


set, MIMI
Blys dead gone to glory-so Bly's sister Nell;
There's tale know about them poet l
would tell,
Soft it with perfume laden, like breath of coun-
try air
everywhere.
In that vile and dismal valley long ago winters day,
Dying quick of want and fever hapless patient
Billy lay,
While beside him sat his sister in the dismal garnet gloom
Cheering with her gentle presence, Billys pathway
to the tomb.
Many tale of elf and fairy did she tell dying child
Till his eyes lost half their anguish, and her wan
features smiled
Tales herself had heard hap-hazard caught amid the
babel roar,
Lisped about by tiny gossps playing at their moth
q ooor'
Then she felt his wasted fingers tighten eebly she told
How beyond that dismal valley lay land of shin
ing gold
Where when all the pain everywhere when all the
tears shed
He would be white robed angel. with gold thing
on his head
She eight this maiden her been spent
In the alley and the garrett where they pay
the rent;
Where drunken fathers curses, and drunken moth
Drove her forth gutter from the days dawn to
its close.
But she knew enough this outcast just to tell the dy
ing boy,
''You must die before you able all these blessings
to enjoy,
You must die" she whispered ''Biy, and am not
even ILL,
But I'll you dear brother, yes, promise you
Will.
Jx;po 1;++Io Iii,
heard father say mother that he knew you could
They will put you in coffin, then you'll wake and be
up there,
While I'm left alone to suffer ia this garnet bleak
and bare
eyes, know it, answered Billy, "ah, but, sister 1
don't mind;
Gentle Jesus will not beat me-He's not cruel or
mkind;
But can't help thinking Nelly would like toake away
Something sister, that you gave me, 1 might look at
every day
Sin the summer you remember how the mission took
out
To the great, green meadow, where played and
about
And the that took halted by sweet white patch
of land
Where the fine red blossoms grew, DEAR half big
mothers hand'
such flowers those,
And he told me l remember, that the pretty name
rose
have never seen them since dear, how wish that
had one
Just to keep and think of you dear, when II up be-
yond the SUM-.
Not word said little Nellie; but night, when Billy
slept,
On she flung her scanty garments down the creaking
stairs she crept
Through the silent streets of London she nmby
fawn,
Running on, and running ever, till the night had
turned to dawn
When the foggy had risen and the had cleared
away
All around her wrapped in drift there the open
country lay.
She tired her limbs frozen, and the road had
cut her feet,
But she found flowers garden her keen hungry eyes
"ei0o''
She had traced the road asking she had learned the
way to co.
She had found the famous meadow-it wrapped in
cruel snow,
Not buttercup daisy, single verdant blade
Showed head its prison, then she knelt her
down and prayed.
With her eyes upcast to heaven down she sank upon
the ground
And she prayed to God to tell her where the roses
might be found
Then cold blast numbed her and her sight grew
strangely dim,
And sudden awful seemed to rack her
every limb.
''Oh rose,' she moaned, ''good Jesus just
take to BILL
Even she prayed, a chariot laundering down
the h
And lady sat there toying with red sweet,
AndaS he SSed The hunpit it