Year: 1862

ness to this, and over and over again, in
the keenness of her despair, the thought
had darted through her brain--"What
shall l do with my life? What shall /
do with my life i" At last this one feel
ing grew stronger than all others--the
dread of those innumerable hours dark
with recollections that would never sleep.
She knew nothing Of the next world !!
she knew too much of this! And death,
annihilation, any hereafter, was prefera-
BILE to the realization of this fearful antic-
ipation. 'aa'' 80 ,h''-


She took the cup in her hand and went
to the open window; a lingering and in
defnable sympathy with nature, with the
night that was about to close round her
forever, caused her to look out once more
into the blackness and space typical of all
that she saw beyond the end perhaps,
also, there stole almost unconsciously in
to her heart a vague yearning for the So
lace that stricken creatures sometimes find
in the contemplation of creation. Per-
haps her last look at Gods serene sky
was to be protest against the misery
that saw afar off everything lovely and
peaceful. The blue and cloudless hea-
vens sparklcd with the light Of stars ;
their cold and distant glory would shine
the same the next night when she should
be-ah not the same


The soft air foated over the fevered
brow, and lifted the same wavy hair that
young girl had once before thrust away
that she might look with eager eyes upon
the beauty Of earth but the air now bore
no messages from the Highest, the eyes
were hungry for death, and if angels
camped round about her they had folded
their wings in dismay and pity. A mer-
ry laughing party passed in the street be-
low; mechanically she looked after them
their silken robes, the glitter of jewels
flashed through the gloom, the sound Of
young and gay voices rose up from light
spirits to the sense of that pale and 81.
lent woman who watched their forms re.
cede in poetic meaning. Careless hearts
would ye have wept, instead of smiling
amid the comedy of your pleasure, could
ye have penetrated the tragedy of that
ruined life? ~ g......2 ..5


All the sky was bright; all the thor
oughfare was still, all her thoughts wer'
one storm of defiance, memories, madness
Suddenly out of the depths of the nigh
there rang through the silence single
human cry la cry of the streets Ia CRY
concentrating the want, the wall, the pa
thos of poverty, of degradation, Of hare
and cheerless labor 1t pierced the fren
zy of that tortued brain. Out of the val
ley of the shadow of death, she looked
through gh the mist of time, and saw chile
weeping for childhood'sf trouble anc
hearing amid her tears that sound of ap
peal, and in the innocence and freshness
of an unspotted nature interpreting th'
tone into call to duty. r1 itdl


She remembered how the child had for
gotten her grief in an overwhelming com
passion for the race that starved and suf
fered ali! she remembered how the pur
soul, brave in ignorance, longed to reliev
and exalt the poor and degraded. Th'
unredeemed pledge of childhold to the fu
ture shaped itself once more to her minC
as she pictured the homes without love
the hearts without food, the crushed, tn
depraved, the struggling souls swarminl
in the great city around her. e# D..


That one cry had lifted away the bur
den of self, and revealed the need of hu
manity: infants to snatch from the era
dies of crime men and women to rescu
from the slough of dcspond; passions ant
pains to be conquered and soothed, socia
sores to be healed, and craving minds t
be fed And she, standing there will
the poison in her hand, and the bloo'
strong in her frame, had asked with des
pairing lips, "what shall ! do with m,
life ?" A thousand beseeching eyes seem
ed to glow on her from the darkness in
Vulnerable voiccs---echoes Of the one iron
the abysses of the great town-seemed t