OCR Text |
Show The Old Year and the New "Haven eight nine! Do you hear that?" naked lha old clock In the corner. cor-ner. "Hero It I a full hour after your bedtime, and yet you alt there daring Into the fire!" In front of the fire aat an old womangray wom-angray haired, wrinkled, feeble. Tb voire of the clock did not dlaiurb bar. but a aho watched the fitful llmnea, one could have read her thought. "Hut ll'a excuaiible on thla night." continued the rlork, In aoll tone-"Height)! tone-"Height)! bill If the laat night of th old yenr! Three houra more and we are done with I'.'uU. You and I are going lo wutrh the old year out together. to-gether. I.el'a ace? How many year have I aeen ciune niui go? Forty exactly ex-actly forty with thla one. Thafa a long lime, long time." The woman rocked gently to and fro, and by nnd by the rl k enddenly called out : "Whnt. Icara In your eye! ( nine, now. hut thafa no way to end the venr. We are thinking of lite anine thing Yea. he wna a good nnd loving hUBbnml. nnd I'll any thla for both of yuu that 1 never heard an unpleaaunt Wo.'d between "U. It l 12 "'" .Hire be died. I could only look Into hi fnro a he lay on hi dying bed. and If aver heaven aetil It light In lend a anul nrroaa the dark valley II wna given lo him. I remember yon' tnira and moiiiia nun aoua. mm l.rnyrd that dmtti might come to you aa well." The woman wiped her teiira. and there w aa ll feeling of auff.H atlon B aha let memory brim; up the eventa. l-:iybt nine tin!" culled the clock lifter a while. "How time il.i.-a Ily! I ,Hlv remember sinking the laat hour of l!M.:l. I.et me aee! Some one then wept with you lit that hcdalde. There waa a ami nnd a daughter Ah! now I recall their fa. ea their gentle ,ya-tlielr loving wor.la. Two y,.rj Utter I here '" another deathbed, more walla and aob. nnd I the pnll-heiirera na they carried the iluugh tcra bod)' o'tl "f bona". It aeem B( if the laat blow miiat cruah you, nnd I well remember aayltig lo myaelf Hint It woulilii t be long before you were called to go." The woman choked bnck her ob. and her Up moved aa If ahe were rpenklng the namea tif her dead onea. For many mlnutea her reverie waa unbroken, and ahe henrd not Iho tick-luck! tick-luck! tick-tack! of tho teutly old clock. "Nine len eleven!" udilenly called the clock. "The on? Ah! howj nl, aenl minded I have become! Well do 1 remember the day a woman wllh a pale face nnd frightened eyea opened the diair and handed you a letter, which bore the Inalgnla of death. You oneneil It with trembling Ithgera, and next moment you were like one dead. There were day and day- when you hovered between Ufa and death, and I, for my pnrt ii' up all hopea. Died In a foreign lunil; burled among atrnngera over the aea. It wa a blow aimed at a heart twice broken." The wmnnn covered, liar face and monned In angulah. and the clock continued: "Don't grieve an, the dead nra at reat forevermore. l.lfc'a mlatakea may heed lo be wiiabed away with tenre, but the dead reaped ihelr reward. You ure old nnd poor and broken, but who ran tell what raw frlenda Iho new year may rulae up for you? I ciinnot tell you lo forget the paat. for a ninth-er'a ninth-er'a heart ever goea nut for her dead. hut the new year may have luoro auuahlii". Come, now I am about to atrlke tho old year out and the new yenr In. I.el ua greet the new with a kinlle of welcome aa I count ten-eleven ten-eleven twelve-a happy New Y'eur!" The woman did not move. "llelgho!" culled the clock: "W tin vo left thn old behind!" liar lunula had dropped bvaldo her. i ml hi- head bail fallen "Dead!" clicked Hie clock, aa lha laal faint vchoea of lila bell died iiv.uy Being and Doing. It la anld. "To be good la the wuy to be happy." but to be i;oi.d ullil ttl do good la the way lo ba happy. What ii happy wofld thla would be If ull would do the bent thing for them- aelvea, If all realized that I lie only wuy to get out of lite la to put Into It, that the way In receive la to give, ami the only way to be helped (a to bu helpful, and the way to gain lila la to lime ll for oilier, and tbe wny to go up la lo go down, for "The meek ahull Inherit the earth" "He that humbleth hlmaelf ahull ba exulted " It la petty to live for aelf. It la grund to live for frlenda, but 'Mb glorloua to live lor mankind, and. na one bai aald. "The only way to work for flod ' la to work for nmii." |