of the sea at Naples, and feel the old pavements in Pompeii, and the
hot lava of Vesuvius. And, oh, perhaps we will go to the Holy Land, and
stand just where Christ once stood, and you will see the hills He looked
upon, and the spot on which He suffered. And I shall be so glad and
somehow feel nearer to Him. And, oh, if He could be there as He was
once--a man, you know--I'd cry to Him louder than ever old Bartimeus
did, and tell Him I was a little blind boy from America, but that I
loved Him, and wanted Him to make me see. And He would, I know."

Such were the dreams of the enthusiastic boy, but they were never to be
realized. Always delicate as a child, he grew more and more so as he
became older, so that at last all mental labor was put aside, and when
he was sixteen, and Lucy nineteen, they took him to St. Augustine, where
he could hear the moan of the sea and fancy it was the Mediterranean in
far-off Italy. Lucy was of course with him, and made him see everything
with her eyes, and took him to the old fort and led him upon the sea
wall and through the narrow streets and out beneath the orange trees,
where he liked best to sit and feel the soft, warm air upon his face and
inhale the sweet perfume of the southern flowers.

But all this did not give him strength. On the contrary, the hectic
flush on his cheek deepened daily, his hands grew thinner and paler, and
the eyelids seemed to droop more heavily over the sightless eyes. Robin
was going to die, and he knew it, and talked of it freely with his
sister, and of Heaven, where Christ would make him whole.

"It will be such joy to see," he said to her one night when they sat
together by the window of his room, with the silvery moonlight falling
on his beautiful face and making it like the face of an angel. "Such joy
to see again, and the very first one I shall look at after Christ and
mother, will be old blind Bartimeus, who sat by the roadside and begged.
I have not had to do that, and my life has been very, very happy, for
you have been my eyes, and made me see everything. You know I have a
faint recollection of the grass, and the flowers, and the trees in the
park, and that has helped me so much; and I have you in my mind, too,
and you are so lovely I know, for I have heard people talk of your
sweet face and beautiful eyes; starry eyes I have heard them called."

"Oh, Robbie, Robbie, don't!" came like cry of pain from Lucy's quivering
lips. But Robin did not heed