"
"And you told him"--
"That I would never leave you, so long as you lived!"
----"My own dear Madge,--come to me,--kiss me! And you love him,
Maggie?"
"With all my heart, sir."
----"So like your mother,--the same figure,--the same true, honest
heart! It shall be as you wish, dear Madge. Only you will not leave me
in my old age,--eh, Maggie?"
----"Never, father,--never."
* * * * *
----And there she leans upon his chair;--her arm around the old man's
neck,--her other hand clasped in his,--and her eyes melting with
tenderness as she gazes upon his aged face,--all radiant with joy and
with hope!
IV.
_The End of Dreams._
A feeble old man, and a young lady who is just now blooming into the
maturity of womanhood, are toiling up a gentle slope, where the spring
sun lies warmly. The old man totters, though he leans heavily upon his
cane; and he pants as he seats himself upon a mossy rock that crowns the
summit of the slope. As he recovers breath, he draws the hand of the
lady in his, and with a trembling eagerness he points out an old mansion
that lies below under the shadow of tall sycamores; and he says,--feebly
and brokenly,--"That is it, Maggie,--the old home--the sycamores--the
garret--Charlie--Nelly"--
The old man wipes his eyes.
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