How infinite the wealth of love and hope Garnered in these same tiny treasure-houses! And oh! what bankrupts in the world we feel, When Death, like some remorseless creditor, Seizes on all we fondly thought our own. The Twins. The ghoul-like fever was not to be braved with impunity, and balked of its prey. The widow had reclaimed her children; her neighbours, in the good Samaritan sense of the word, had paid her little arrears of rent, and made her a few shillings beforehand with the world. She determined to flit from that cellar to another less full of painful associations, less haunted by mournful memories. The board, not so formidable as she had imagined, had inquired into her case; and, instead of sending her to Stoke Claypole, her husband's Buckinghamshire parish, as she had dreaded, had agreed to pay her rent. So food for four mouths was all she was now required to find; only for three she would have said; for herself and the unweaned child were but reckoned as one in her calculation. She had a strong heart, now her bodily strength had been recruited by a week or two of food, and she would not despair. So she took in some little children to nurse, who brought their daily food with them, which she cooked for them, without wronging their helplessness of a crumb; and when she had restored them to their mothers at night, she set to work at plain sewing, "seam, and gusset, and band," and sat thinking how she might best cheat the factory inspector, and persuade him that her strong, big, hungry Ben, was above thirteen. Her plan of living was so far arranged, when she heard, with keen sorrow, that Wilson's twin lads were ill of the fever. They had never been strong. They were like many a pair of twins, and seemed to have but one life divided between them. One life, one strength, and in this instance, I might almost say, one brain; for they were helpless, gentle, silly children, but not the less dear to their parents and to their strong, active, manly, elder brother. They were late on their feet, late in talking, late every way; had to be nursed and cared for when other lads of their age were tumbling about in the street, and losing themselves, and being taken to the police-office miles away from home. Still want had never yet come in at the door to make love for these innocents fly out of the window. Nor was this the case even now, when Jem Wilson s earnings, and his mother's occasional charings, were barely sufficient to give all the family their fill of food. But when the twins, after ailing many days, and caring little for their meat, fell sick on the same after-noon, with the same heavy stupor of suffering, the three hearts that loved them so, each felt, though none acknowledged to the other, that they had little chance for life. It was nearly a week before the tale of their illness spread as far as the court where the Wilsons had once dwelt, and the Bartons yet lived. Alice had heard of the sickness of her little nephews several days before, and had locked her cellar door, and gone off straight to her brother's house, in Ancoats; but she was often absent for days, sent for, as her neighbours knew, to help in some sudden emergency of illness or distress, so that occasioned no surprise. Margaret met Jem Wilson several days after his brothers were seriously ill, and heard from him the state of things at his home. She told Mary of it as she entered the court late that evening; and Mary listened with saddened heart to the strange contrast which such woful tidings presented to the gay and loving words she had been hearing on her walk home. She blamed herself for being so much taken up with visions of the golden future, that she had lately gone but seldom on Sunday afternoons, or other leisure time, to see Mrs Wilson, her mother's friend; and with hasty purpose of amendment she only stayed to leave a message for her father with the next-door neighbour, and then went off at a brisk pace on her way to the house of mourning. She stopped with her hand on the latch of the Wilsons' door, to still her beating heart, and listened to the bushed quiet within. She opened the door softly there sat Mrs Wilson in the old rocking-chair, with one sick, death-like boy lying on her knee, crying without let or pause, but softly, gently, as fearing to disturb the troubled gasping child; while behind her, old Alice let her fast-dropping tears fall down on the dead body of the other twin, which she was laying out on a board placed on a sort of sofa-settee in a corner of the room. Over the child, which yet breathed, the father bent, watching anxiously for some ground of hope, where ho e there was none. Mary stepped slowly and light y across to Alice. "Aye, poor lad God has taken him early, Mary." Mary could not speak; she did not know what to say; it was so much worse than she expected. At last she ventured to whisper, "Is there any chance for the other one, think you?" Alice shook her head, and told with a look that she believed there was none. She next endeavoured to lift the little body, and carry it to its old-accustomed bed in its parents' room. But earnest as the father was in watching the yet-living, he had eyes and ears for all that concerned the dead, and sprang gently up, and took his dead son on his hard couch in his arms with tender strength, and carried him up-stairs as if afraid of wakening him. The other child gasped longer, louder, with more of effort. "We mun get him away from his mother. He cannot die while she's wishing him." "Wishing him?" said Mary, in a tone of inquiry. "Aye; donno ye know what wishing means? There's none can die in the arms of those who are wishing them sore to stay on earth. The soul o' them as holds them won't let the dying soul go free so it has a hard struggle for the quiet of death. We mun get him away fra' his mother, or he'll have a hard death, poor lile fellow." So without circumlocution she went and offered to take the sinking child.
同类推荐
热门推荐
李宗吾传授的28堂生存智慧课
本书在深度挖掘李宗吾厚黑智慧精髓的基础上,通过精炼的要点链接和大量历史上的、现实生活中的、正面的或反面的事例,归纳出了28堂李宗吾的厚黑智慧课,诠释了立足社会、为人处世的厚黑智慧之妙用。呆萌仙妻:神君殿下请入心
前世,她是天宫掌管百鸟的青鸾,他是一人之下万人之上的天宫太子。订婚之日,他一把利剑刺入她的胸口,她神形俱灭,带着遗憾和愤恨跳下九重天……二世为妖,她天真无邪,天宫相处数日,她倾心于他…“神君。”她紧紧拽着裙摆低声叫住他。他侧身回眸:“何事?”“我……我住哪啊……”她紧咬下唇,面若桃花。我的微笑王子
她叫满圆月。人如其名,圆月般完美。“三间道”内大当家涟的得力助手,身手一流、妖娆冶致。而那晚她冒险闯入“英华集团”的秘密基地盗取文件,就是为了要去寻找自己想念了十年、也爱了十年的他。乔健治,跨国公司总裁,高明的手段使他领导的团队在商海里无战不胜。就在他第一眼看到她,便无可制止的对她产生好感。原本只是想玩一玩,最后竟爱上了她,为了惩罚她,他要将她绑在身边,让她永远逃不掉。因为小时的那个微笑,他拯救了她的心灵,使她永远的记住了他。而十年后的重逢,他竟然将她忘得一干二净!?天啊,她要怎么做才能够唤醒他的记忆?为了保护她,他“献身”给了别的女人,而她却一气之下跑了,一逃就是两年,害得他茶饭不思。他教她体验情欲的滋味,使她慢慢沉沦。原本是两人每晚同床共枕,为何他突然又带了别的女人回家?而且还在她的面前跟那些女人秀恩爱。真是胆大包天!既然他不要她了,那好啊,她走,总行了吧……。