Only a Dream

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1646, 27 February 1886, Page 4

Only a Dream

Br Mrs M. L. Ratnb. The doctor ha<l gone away at midnight, saying that he would look in agun early in the morning, and the tired watchers had sonqht a few moments of rest while the sick man slept, ■: but they were within reach of the faintest call. The light burned low and out of . the gloom strange shadows evolved themselves into almost human shapes and hovored about the bedroom whereupon the dying man lay Suddenly the white head lying on the pillow moved, the sunken face grew less pinched and worn in the , jit£ul light,, and the eyes of the old znaiv opened wide with a troubled, wistful expression. • * '^Millicent" he called fe jbly, "Millicont, J have hud a bad dream." The shadow of an old wonian with white locks, and a form bbwei by age, came in swiftly at the open door; she sat down beside him and held in hers the helpless bauds. There was a sob : in the voice that said tremblingly: "It was only a dream, Reuben." "But such :i dreadful' dream— that iny hair was white and I was an old — man— and tl»at we had graves. Millicent, * hat did it mean?" ., Sob -sob— sob. She bent over him tenderly and stroked the veined and wrinkled hands ■with loving touch. But she could not speak ; strong hands they had once been, and tireless to do her bidd- " Arid in that dream you were old, too, my bonny Milliceni. You hair Was iStiowwhite instead of and;,; your young soft bands— dear hands— were hard and withered. And the children, dear, the little ones, were, gone. Are the children safe Millicent?^ . .... "Aye, Reudcn," sobbed the shadow, *" the children are— safe." ".Thank God, then, it was only a dream, and your hair is. not white and I am not old. It was only a dream, after all." "Only a dream, Reuben." "\Vith his hand in hers he slept again, and glad smiles -crept over his wan. face and a look of his youth trembled on his '" close J eyelids Tender words escaped from bis pale lips as his soul drifted among the argosies of the unknown seas. *« " Hark!" he cried with the fervor of immortal youth. ' They aro singing in the church. IhearmyMillicent's voice." He broke forth in n strain of devotional music that rose and tell in waves of rapture. The watch ers stole in and looked at him and at each other in troubled surprise. He did not see them. His eyes were fixed beyond — beyond— as he sang: "No chilling winds nor poisonous breath Can reach thai healthful shore j Siekness and sorrow, pain and death, dre felt and feared no more." "Millicent— my wife, till death do us part — we are old. It was only a dream." As the daylight shone into the room it touched the pillow with the gold of eternal youth. The old man had ceased to dream.