----Poor old man, he is near his tomb! Yet his calm eye, looking
upward, seems to show no fear.
* * * * *
The same old man is in his chamber; he cannot leave his chair now. Madge
is beside him; Nelly is there too with her eldest-born. Madge has been
reading to the old man: it was a passage of promise--of the Bible
promise.
"A glorious promise!" says the old man, feebly;--"a promise to me,--a
promise to her, poor Madge!"
----"Is her picture there, Maggie?"
Madge brings it to him: he turns his head; but the light is not strong.
They wheel his chair to the window. The sun is shining brightly: still
the old man cannot see.
"It is getting dark, Maggie."
Madge looks at Nelly--wistfully--sadly.
The old man murmurs something; and Madge stoops.--"Coming," he
says,--"coming!"
Nelly brings the little child to take his hand. Perhaps it will revive
him. She lifts her boy to kiss his cheek.
The old man does not stir: his eyes do not move: they seem fixed above.
The child cries as his lips touch the cold cheek.--It is a tender Spring
flower upon the bosom of the dying WINTER!
* * * * *
----The old man is gone: his dream-life is ended.
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