Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-05
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
DREAM CHILDREN
BY CHARLES LAMB

used to be because I was never nall SO
good or religious as She--and yet j
never saw the infants.
Here John expanded all his eyebrows
and tried to look courageous. =.
Then told how good she was to all
| her grandchildren, having us to the
great house in the holidays, where
| In particular used to spend many hours
by myself in gazing upon the old ousts
of the IL Caesars that had been en-
perors of Rome till the old marble heads
would seem to live again or TO De
turned into marble with them. How /
could never be tired with roaming about
| that huge mansion, with its vast empty
rooms. with their worn-out hangingS,
futtering tapestry and carved oaken
panels with the gliding almost rubbed
off-sometimes in the spacious, old
fashioned gardens; sometimes lying
about upon the fresh grass with all the
fine garden smells about me, or In
watching the dace that darted to and
fro In the fishpond at the bottom of the
garden, with here and there a great
Sulky pike hanging midway down the
water in silent state. as II II mockeo
their impairment friskings.
Then told how. though their great
grandmother Field loved all her grand
IL.
might be said to love their Uncle John,
because he was SO handsome and spir-
tied a youth, and king to the rest OF
us Instead of moping about in solitary
corners, like some of us, he would mount
the most mettlesome horse he could get
when but an imp no bigger than them
selves and make it carry him half over
| the country in a morning, and join the
hunters when there were any out.
| And vet he loved the old great house
and gardens, too, but had too much
spirit to be always pent up within their
boundaries; and how their uncle grew
up to mans estate as brave as he was
handsome, to the admiration OF every
body, but of their Observation-Disclosures
Field most especially. How he used to
carry me upon his back when l was q
| lame footed bcy-for he was good bit
older than me-many mile when ]
could not walk for pain; and how n
after life he became lame-footeo, too,
and did not always q fear) make al
lowance for him when he was impa-
| tient and in pain. nor remember SUM-
GENTLY how considerable he had been to
me when / was lame-footed.
| I told how when he died, though he
| had not been dead an hour, It seemed
as if he had died great while ago,
such a distance there Is betwiyt life and
death. How / bore his death, as /
| thought, pretty well at first, but after
ward 1t haunted and haunted me. and
though did not cry or take it to heart
as some do. and as / think he would
have done If had died, yet missed
| him all day long, and knew not Till
| then how much I had loved him.
missed his kindness and I missed his
crossness, and wished him to be alive
again, to be quarreling with him flor we
ouarreled sometimes), rather than not
to have him again, and was as uneasy
about him as he, their poor uncle, must
have beer when the doctor took OF his
limb
Here the children fell a-crying, and
asked If their little mourning which
they had On was not for Uncle John,
and they looked up and prayed me not
to go on about their uncle, but to tell
them stories about their pretty, dead
mother.
Then I told how for seven long years
in hope sornetimess sometimes in de-
SPAR, yet persisting ever, I courted fair
Alice. their mother TO be. As much as
A children could understand, explained
| 10 them what coyness and difficulty
and denial meant In maidenS, when
suddenly, turning to Alice, the soul Of
tn first Alice looked out at her eyes
With such a reality of representmeni
that became in doubt which of them
stood there before me or whose thai
bright hair was.
While / stood gazing both the chill.
dren gradually grew fainter to my view
receding, and still receding, till moth
ing at last but two mournful features
we're seen in the uttermost distance
which seemed to speak, we are moth.
ing. less than nothing. and dreams. WI
are only what might have been"
| Immediately waking. / found myself
quietly seated In my bachelor armchair
where I had fallen asleep.