he old man enters feebly, yet
with floating glimpses of glee, into the cheer and the rejoicings.

----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.

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dream Life, by Donald G. Mitchell

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