ONLY A DREAM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2199, 20 January 1886, Page 2

ONLY A DREAM.

By Mrs M. L, Rayno. The doctor had gone away at midnight, saying that he would, look in again early in the morning, and the tired watchers had sought a moments of rest yhile the sjck man slept; but they \yere within reach pf the faintest oall. The light burned low, and out of the gloom strange shadows evolved themselves into almost hitman shapes^and hoveled about tlie bed whereon the dying man lay.

Suddenly tlio white head lying on the pillow moved, the sicken fyce grew less pinched and worn in the fitful light, and the eyes of the old man opened wide with a troubled, wistful expression. " Millicent," ho called feebly, " Millicent, I have had a bad dream," The shadow of an old woman with white locks, and a form bowed by age, came in swiftly at the open door; she sat down beside him, and held in hers the helpless hands. There was a sob in the voice that'Baid tremblingly, "It wbb only a dream—Reuben."

'" But such a dreadful dream—that my hfiir ,w ( is white and I was old—an eld man—and that we had graves. Millicent what did it mean?. 1 Sob—fob-Sob,

She bent ovorhim tendorly and stroked the veined wrinkled hajidij with Igyipg touch. 'But strong haii'ds' they hsd once been, and tireless to dohorbidding, " And in that dream you were old, too, my bonny Millicent. Your hair was snowwhite instead of golden, and your young soft hanSs—dear hands-were hard and withered. And the children, dear, the little ones, were gone. Are the children Jjifg, "" '•Aye, 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 dvoam "after all.", "Only a dream, Reuben."

With his hands in hers he slept again, and glad smiles crept over his wan face, and a look of his youth trembled on his c)oßed _ oyelida. Tender words 1 escaped from his pale jipa as his soul drifted among the argosies of the uplinown'seaj. • -K " Bark I" h® otied, With'thd fervor of

i'mmoftalyouth.' "Theyare singing in tho church! 1 hear my Millicent'e voice." ■He broke forth inastnin of devotional music that roseandfellin waves of rapture. The watchersutole 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 that healthful shore; Sickness and sorrow, pain and death, Are felt and feared no more. "Millicent—my wife, till death do us part—we are not old. It was only a dream." As the daylight shono into the room it touched the pillow with the gold of eternal youth. The old man had ceased to dream.