A WOMAN'S LIFE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 83

A WOMAN'S LIFE.

(Paper Contributed to the Dunedin DL F L. and D. Club.) (By Rogue II )

A little child is carefully putting her favourite doll to bad. With tender solicitude she carefully removes each dainty little garment and fastens on the tiny nightgown. Then with a fond kiss she hugs her treasure to her and places it in its little ciadle. After patting it gently, she tip-toes out of the togni as tb.fi tffiligbjt P^ps sautigvialy in s

A fair maiden stands before her lookingglass, adding" the last touches to her evening toilet. Her lover will soon be here, and her eyes are full of innocent lovehght. .She looks eagerly at her reflection in the glass: how glad she is that she is pretty! She fiowns a little at a wave of hair that will not stay just as it should. A ring comes at the door, and she hastens away to meet her beloved.

A young wife sits anxiously watching for her husband. At each approaching footstep her heart bsats rapturously, and then grows heavy with disappointment. She will not go indoors — it is so sweat out here! The creeping shadows cheer her trembling soul, so she waits and wishes, and the shadows lengthen into darkened night. A mother is rocking her baby to sleep. He looks at her gravely as they move to and fro, as if asking how the bright sunshine must leave and the ugly shadows hide her dear face from him. There is a wealth of wisdom in his great, sweet eyes. He holds tightly to her dress as if to keep her near him. When at last his eyes are closed she disengages the loving hand, kisses him lightly as he must not be awakened — and arises to put hirni into his- crib. Then she sinks back into her chair and begins to rock again. It is so peasant to rest in the twilight, and he is so sweet to nurse!

A woman kneels bj a new-made grave. The headboard stares coldly at her, and seems to say over and^#ver again the words inscribed on it. He was her only child, and she was 1 a widow. With tear-laden ejes she bends lower and loweT, till her lips Test upon the earth. She longs to k?=s the quiet form it is hiding from her! And the twilight seems to hurry past and lose itself in the daikness.

A careworn old woman sits watching the shadows come. hey are friends to her — friends that sflfc welcomes, for they always sing the same old song to her : "One day nearer home." And she smiles on them her thanks. She, too. repeats, "One day nearer home." A™d so life — woman's life — goes on in the twilight, till rest comes to her weary body and joy to her aching heart, till her spiiit reaches its home, where never a shadow can fall upon it.