FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   >>  
tle-hearted nurses who stood waiting in the hospital wards,--work which required tenderest care;--removing the rags, washing the fevered skeletons, bathing the bleeding wounds where the sharp bones had pierced the skin; feeding them,--a crumb at a time; administering cordials drop by drop, to bring back with delicate nursing the receding tides of life. With a bleeding heart, but yet with steady nerves, Azalia passed among them, doing her appointed work. There was one who was lying as if asleep, with his hands clasped upon his breast. His beard had been long uncut. His cheeks were wasted, his eyes sunken, but he had a manly brow. A strange fear and trembling crept over her,--a shuddering of the heart. Alarmed and frightened at she knew not what, she brushed back the matted hair from his temples, and laid her hand upon his brow, cold and damp with the dews of death. The soldier opened his eyes, looked into her face, stared wildly around him, and tried to speak. It was but one word, and that a whisper,--her own name, "Azalia!" A cry rang through the ward, startling the physicians and the nurses, and waking those who were asleep. She clasped him in her arms, fell upon his face, and kissed his wasted lips. "O Paul! Can it be that you are here?" she said. The throbbing of her heart was like the fluttering of a frightened bird. Sweet, calm, and beautiful as the setting sun was the smile upon his face, and in his eyes the celestial light of Peace! They closed, and he lay again as if in slumber. "They told me that you were dead," she said. There was no reply; she laid her hand upon his heart, but could feel no beating there; touched her fingers to his fleshless wrist, but could find no throbbing of the pulse. The thin blood was receding from his colorless lips,--the tide was going out. "Doctor! Doctor! O come quick! Save him!" she cried. The doctor came and gazed upon the face of Paul. "He is not quite gone," he said, then moistened his lips with brandy. There was a quickening of the pulse. "If he rallies from this, we may save him," he said. They wrapped him in warm flannels, rubbed his fleshless limbs, and gave him cordials, drop by drop. How long the hours,--the weary hours of hope and fear,--of expectation and distress,--while the faltering spirit, as if tired of earth, was but fluttering awhile along the shore of Time before taking its returnless flight over the dark and silent river to another land! Through
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   >>  



Top keywords:
Azalia
 

nurses

 

clasped

 

bleeding

 

wasted

 
asleep
 
fleshless
 

cordials

 
fluttering
 

throbbing


frightened

 

receding

 
Doctor
 

silent

 
beating
 

flight

 
touched
 
fingers
 

setting

 

celestial


beautiful

 

Through

 

colorless

 

closed

 

slumber

 

flannels

 

rubbed

 

wrapped

 

distress

 

faltering


spirit

 
awhile
 

expectation

 

rallies

 

doctor

 
returnless
 

quickening

 
brandy
 

moistened

 
taking

whisper
 

nerves

 
passed
 
steady
 

hospital

 

waiting

 
appointed
 

cheeks

 
sunken
 

breast