| Show AN EASTER VISION it was easter sunday the streets were thronged with well dress sed peo pie on their way ray to church and the spring air was full of the joyous sound of bells what a hollow mockery thought one sad faced woman roman as she stood amid the worshipers in the crowded transept the priest stretched out his hands toward the kneeling flock and spoke of the butterfly and the chrysalis the marvel of revivified and blossoming earth yet his words were meaning less cold and empty in the ears of the sad black robed woman who sought in yam vain for consolation were they indeed those mansions of god of which the rector spoke had thea people found them why then were they barred to hera ah ali in her bitterness she doubted if she really cared for such joys all she yearned tor for was the one tender human smile which tuey wey told her was as forever banished her heart rose up in a spasm of rebellion it could not be true that anything so good was ras irrevocably gone christ Is risen Is risen from the dead sang the choir but the sad and lonely woman roman turned and left the church that afternoon she walked along country roads through the delicious s of the spring filled air As she trod the brown meadows the sky was aglow with the dulling gold of tile the sunshine and the wind bore to her the scent of fresh hyacinths still she wandered on unheeding absorbed in the bitterness of her own heart until she saw before her a country churchyard where a woman black robed like herself bent sobbing above a new made grave drawn by some intangible chord of sympathy she walked over to where the other kneeled at the tomb it is easter said the second woman mechanically lifting her heavy eyes and he is dead A sudden comprehension came to her glance she reacted out her hand and touched the strangers gown you understand she cried you too yes I 1 understand answered the first woman monotonously your story is also mine he is dead they are gone from us forever cried the woman at the grave with a burst of wild weeping ah ali tor for one sign of immoral imm oriu y tor for one hope one dream it is not forever that they but sleep to live again and then tor for both laese sorrowing souls was wrought a miracle life tor for the instant threw aside its mask of death and revealed itself in 1 s serene majesty of reality the sky shy became more vivid and opaline the wind blew more freshly bearing a ausan sd d scents hepaticas were blooming at their feet a bird soared sinning from the ground for the moment they seedbed fied to feel the swirl of the earth on its axis the stars revolving in their spheres the mighty heave of the great oceans of life and knew that there was nothing in time nor space nor exist ence but change motion and vitality in that one brief moment they felt and knew the presence of their dead infinitely near and comforting and were assured beyond all doubt that there was the freer step the fuller breath the wide horizon horizons s grander view the sense of life that knows no death the life that mabeth all things new and then the vision passed the scales fell upon their eyes their ears once more grew dull and yet its memory remained they stood to gether in the a or d as they bad had known it alone but nevermore desolate v |
