ook which had
startled Eric--as though he were learning their color and shape
by heart.

"I wish I hadn't brought them, though," said Eric, "they are filling
your mind with regrets. But, Eddy, you'll be well by the holidays--a
month hence, you know--or else I shouldn't have talked so gladly
about them."

"No, Eric," said Russell sadly, "these dear flowers are the last spring
blossoms that I shall see--_here_ at least. Yes, I will keep them, for
your sake, Eric, till I die."

"Oh don't talk so," said Eric, shocked and flustered, "why everybody
knows and says that you're getting better."

Russell smiled and shook his head. "No, Eric, I shall die. There stop,
dear fellow, don't cry," said he, raising his hands quietly to Eric's
face; "isn't it better for me so? I own it seemed sad at first to leave
this bright world and the sea--yes, even that cruel sea," he continued
smiling; "and to leave Roslyn, and Upton, and Monty, and, above all, to
leave _you_, Eric, whom I love best in all the world. Yes, remember I've
no home, Eric, and no prospects. There was nothing to be sorry for in
this, so long as God gave me health and strength; but health went for
ever into those waves at the Stack, where you saved my life, dear,
gallant Eric; and what could I do now? It doesn't look so happy to
_halt_ through life. Oh Eric, Eric, I am young, but I am dying--dying,
Eric," he said solemnly, "my brother; let me call you brother; I have no
near relations, you know, to fill up the love in my yearning heart, but
I _do_ love _you_. Kiss me, Eric, as though I were a child, and you a
child. There, that comforts me; I feel as if I _were_ a child again, and
had a dear brother;--and I _shall_ be a child again soon, Eric, in the
courts of a Father's house."

Eric could not speak. These words startled him; he never dreamt
_recently_ of Russell's death, but had begun to reckon on his recovery,
and now life seemed darker to him than ever.

But Russell was pressing the flowers to his lips. "The grass
withereth," he murmured, "the flower fadeth, and the glory of its beauty
perisheth; but--_but_ the word of the Lord endureth for ever." And here
he too burst into natural tears, and Eric pressed his hand, with more
than a brother's fondness, to his heart.

"Oh Eddy, Eddy, my heart is full," he said, "too full to speak to you.
Let me read to you;" and with Russell's arm round his neck he sat down,
beside his pillow, and read to him about "the pure riv