The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-04-05
DICK IL SHOCKED
AND GRiENED Mt
MY nEIERMINA TInN

MY ORGANIZATION
DO the doctors really hold out
hope | may walk again. Diek?"
Yes, my dear, and if you do
not walk in year there will still
be another chance-an opera
ton.
Why don't they operate now"
Because il is rather dangerous
and You probably will be kept in
bed year anyway | told them
| would not consent to the oper-
lation until every other thing had
| been done.
Then the operation is case
of life and death?'
Yes. dear"
That simpliiies matters"
said. almost with a smile.
Here. Dick, is what | wanted
to say to you. You know how |
hate a coward mean one that
cant take what comes. am not
afraid to die, but | am afraid to
live. If live | must be chained to
my bed I'm going To try to get
well. | am going to do this for
| the year they prescribe. then If |
am not very much better, | want
You to help me to die"
What"
II mean it, Dick. Surely | can
choose under the circumstances
surely It will he better for all of
us. You are still young. II Is
not right that ! should keep you
from the devotion of some good
woman.
You will some day be a rich
man and it is not fair that you
should not have children to in
hert the money"
Dick protested. "Margie-Mar-
gle, don't torture me. Don't make
me feel that you think | am
brute. | love you, dear"
Yes, | have come to think you
do. Dick, but love will not last
years of unrewarded devotion
such as you will have to pay to
me.
Then you are contemplating
suicide Dick shuddered. Il did
not think it OF you, Margie.
could almost find excuse for poor,
drink-cra2ed Jack, but you, with
your courage, your level head and
your high principles. Oh, Margie,
don't let me lose my ideal of
you"
For the first time since
learned the truth | broke down
and cried, and Dick cried with me.
After | had become calmer | said,
But don't you see. dear Dick, |
must have some hope of surcease
from pain?"
Wait until the end of the
year. said Dick, "and meanwhile
try to think, dear. that you mean
more to me lying here just as you
are than any woman in the
world"
He gathered me up in his arms
and although his convulsive ca
ress hurt me cruelty, | was glad
to know | was still so much to
him.
Silently he laid me down, and
kissing me on eyelids through
which hot tears were making their
blistering way, he left the room.
Someone said i'm a story | read
the other day, Life changes every
half hour" guess 1t is true.
IL seems to me life has
changed every half hour through
il all for me. Some spaces of 80
minutes have only meant long
ing for the future, and others
have made me vainly ask fate to
stay Times hand.
I'VE only have to live one day
at a time" is the way someone
else has looked upon life, but I
like the thought of life changing
every half hour best.
Little book, ] sometimes won-
der that | can write to you so
completely my whole thoughts
and feelings. ] am not woman
that tells many of her sorrows to
anyone. Even since | have been
in the hospital here all my friends
have remarked upon my cheerful-
ness. Ii is only to you, dear little
confident. who always under
stands, that have told my heart
break and sorrow during the years
that have passed since / shut the
book of my girlhood and began
the book of married memories.
You know me perhaps better than
do myself, for I have confided
to your white pages things that IL
a