| Author: | Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. | ISBN: | 1230000148658 |
| Publisher: | WDS Publishing | Publication: | July 6, 2013 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. |
| ISBN: | 1230000148658 |
| Publisher: | WDS Publishing |
| Publication: | July 6, 2013 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
YEARS have passed--many years--since that day!
It was a poorly furnished chamber, dark and cramped, in that section of
the New England metropolis of America where the streets were narrowest
and most devious, and where the dwellings were most closely packed. The
shingles upon the time battered roof flapped with ghostly pattering in
the wintry wind; the biting blast crept in through many a crack and
cranny; and upon the stool of the low dormer window were tiny drifts,
like hoar-frost, that had been sifted in from the whirling snow that
eddied about the quaint old gables and stumpy chimneys.
Upon a scanty clothed bed lay a man, yet in the morning of life, pale,
wan, wasted--dying. The care-worn woman, beautiful still in all her
suffering, bending over and bathing the clammy brow with tears, was his
wife--fond, faithful, and devoted. And the two little ones--a
golden-haired girl, and a bright-eyed boy--were the offspring of a union
that had been cemented in warmest love, but shadowed by the lowering
clouds of dire and undeserved misfortune.
"O! my Malcolm!--dear, dear Malcolm!--can this be the death touch?"
"Yes, Barbara I am dying. But you should not weep. If I were alone--if I
had no wife and children to leave--'twould be sweet to die--to flee from
this cold, cruel earth to the bright, warm realms of the spirit land!
Some time--some time, my love--you will join me there. O! how happy the
thought--how blessed!--I shall wait for you, Barbara. God grant that it
may be mine to guide you up the starlit path that leads to the house of
the angels!--And our children!--Bless them! You will whisper to them
kindly of their dead father--as kindly as you can. Ah, how cruel I have
been----"
"Cruel, Malcolm?--You,--the kindest, the gentlest, and the most
enduring?"
"I was cruel--unjust--selfish--when I urged you to----"
"Hush! hush! No more of that. Think of brighter things."
YEARS have passed--many years--since that day!
It was a poorly furnished chamber, dark and cramped, in that section of
the New England metropolis of America where the streets were narrowest
and most devious, and where the dwellings were most closely packed. The
shingles upon the time battered roof flapped with ghostly pattering in
the wintry wind; the biting blast crept in through many a crack and
cranny; and upon the stool of the low dormer window were tiny drifts,
like hoar-frost, that had been sifted in from the whirling snow that
eddied about the quaint old gables and stumpy chimneys.
Upon a scanty clothed bed lay a man, yet in the morning of life, pale,
wan, wasted--dying. The care-worn woman, beautiful still in all her
suffering, bending over and bathing the clammy brow with tears, was his
wife--fond, faithful, and devoted. And the two little ones--a
golden-haired girl, and a bright-eyed boy--were the offspring of a union
that had been cemented in warmest love, but shadowed by the lowering
clouds of dire and undeserved misfortune.
"O! my Malcolm!--dear, dear Malcolm!--can this be the death touch?"
"Yes, Barbara I am dying. But you should not weep. If I were alone--if I
had no wife and children to leave--'twould be sweet to die--to flee from
this cold, cruel earth to the bright, warm realms of the spirit land!
Some time--some time, my love--you will join me there. O! how happy the
thought--how blessed!--I shall wait for you, Barbara. God grant that it
may be mine to guide you up the starlit path that leads to the house of
the angels!--And our children!--Bless them! You will whisper to them
kindly of their dead father--as kindly as you can. Ah, how cruel I have
been----"
"Cruel, Malcolm?--You,--the kindest, the gentlest, and the most
enduring?"
"I was cruel--unjust--selfish--when I urged you to----"
"Hush! hush! No more of that. Think of brighter things."
