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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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after all . I suppose nobody ever is . If it were not so cold now , I could sleep upon mine . " It was too cold for sleep : and when , in the morning , she offered her old shawl in payment for her bed , assuring- the poor old woman who let it that she should not want the shawl , because she was going to have other clothes , the woman shook her head sorrowfully , —her lodger looked so wan and chilled . She had no fear that there was any thought of suicide in the case . No one could look in Miss Smith ' s sensible face , and hear her steady , cheerful voice , and suppose that she would do anything wild or impatient .
" ¦ Who is that woman with a book in her hand ? " enquired the visiting Commissioner , some months afterwards , of the governor of the workhouse . The governor could only say she was a single woman of the name of Smith , who had no use of her right hand . As to who she was , he could tell no more than this ; but his wife had sometimes mentioned her as a different sort of person from those they generally saw there . She could not only read , but she read very well ; and she read a great deal aloud to the old people , and in the infirmary . She talked unlike the rest , too . She said little ; but her language was good , and always correct . She could not do much on account of her infirmity ; but she was always willing to do what could be done with one hand ; and she must have been very handy when she had the use of both .
" I should have thought her eyes had been too weak for much reading , " observed the Commissioner . " Has the medical officer attended to her I " The governor called his wife : and the wife called a pauper woman who was told the question . This woman said that it was not exactly a case for the doctor . Nobody that shed so many tears could have good eyes . Ah the governor might be surprised ; because Smith seemed so brisk in the daytime , and cheered the old people so much . But she made up for it at night . Many and many a time she cried the night through . " How do you know ? " asked the Commissioner . " I sleep in the next bed , Sir . I can ' t say she disturbs anybody ; for she
is very quiet . But if anything keeps me awake I hear her sobbing . And you need but feel her pillow in the morning . It is wet almost through . " " And does that happen often ?" te Yes , Sir . Many a time when she has turned her back , —gone into the infirmary , or been reading to the old people , —I have got her pillow and dried it . And I have seen her do it herself , with a smile on her face all the time . " The Commissioner walked away . Before he left the place , the woman Smith was beckoned out by the governor . She went with a beating heart , with some wild idea in her head that the Morells had sent , that some friends had turned up . While still in the passage , however , she said to herself that she might as well look to see her parents risen from the dead .
The Commissioner had , indeed , nothing to tell . He wanted to ask . He did ask , as much as his delicacy would allow . But he learned nothing ; except , indeed , what he ought to have considered the most important thing , the state of her mind about being there . About that , she was frank enough . She said over again to him what she had said to herself about this being the right place for one in her circumstances . She considered that it would be an abuse of private charity for her to be maintained in idleness at an expense which might set forward in life some person in a less hopeless position . " You speak cheerfully , as if you were in earnest , " said the Commissioner . " Of course , I am in earnest , " she replied .
And cheerful she remained throughout the conversation . Only once the Commissioner saw her eyes fill and a quiver on her lips . He did not know it ; but he had unconsciously called her " Madam . " Would she prefer the children ' s department of the House ? There was no doubt that she could teach them much . Would she change her quarters ? No . She was too old now for that . She should not be a good companion now for children ; and they would be too much for her . Unless she was wanted ... Bv no means . She should be where she preferred to be . l
She preferred to be where she was . The Commissioner ' s ady soon after dropped in , and managed to engage Smith in conversation . But there was no result ; because Smith did not choose that there should be . Perhaps she was more in the infirmary ; and had oftener a warm seat by the fire , and was spoken to with more deference . But this might be solely owing to the way she made with the people by her own acts and manners . The invalids and the infirm grew so fond of her that they poured out to her all their complaints . She was favoured with the knowledge of every painful sensation as jt passed , and every uneasy thought as it arose .
" I never thought to die in such a place as this , " groaned old Johnny Jacks . " I wonder at that , " said his old wife ; " for you never took any care to provide yourself a better—to say nothing of me . " And she went on to tell how Johnny had idled and drank his life away , and brought her here at last . Much of Johnny ' s idling and drinking having been connected with electioneering in an abominably venal city , he was a great talker on politics and the state was made responsible for all his troubles . He said it was a shame that anybody should die in a workhouse ; and appealed to his neighbour Smith , who was warming his broth , whether it was not so ?
" Which is best ? " she answered ; " being here , or on a common , or the sea-sands ? Because , " she added , " there was a time when old people like us were left to die wherever they fell . There are countries now where old people die so . I should not like that . " " You don ' t mean to say that you or any one likes being here ?"
" Oh , no : I don * t mean to say . that . But things are better than they were once : and they may be better again . " " I shall not live to see that , " groaned Johnny . " No ; nor I . But it is something to think of . " " D it , " said Johnny , " I am not the better for any good that does not happen to me , nor to any body I know . " " Are not you ? " said neighbour Smith . " Well , now , I am . "
And so she was to the end . She died in that infirmary , and not very long after . When the MorelFs letter came , it was plain that they had enough to do to take care of themselves . So she did not let them know , —in her reply , written by the hands of the schoolmaster , —where she was . The letter was so cheerful that they are probably far from suspecting , at this moment , how she died and was buried . As " from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh , " there was so much in her letter as rather surprised them about her
hope and expectation that the time would come when hearty work in the vigorous season of life should secure its easy close ; and when a greater variety of employment should be opened to women . There was more of this kind of speculation and less news and detail of facts than they would have liked . But it was a household event to have a letter from Miss Smith ; and the very little children , forgetting the wide sea they had passed , began shouting for Miss Smith to come to them just ( as it happened ) when her ear was closing to every human voice .
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URIEL . The Seraph Uriel , as the records tell That angels write , from his allegiance fell ; And He who rules the worlds beyond the sun—He in whom love and wisdom are made one—• Did hurl him from his royalty of light , To dwell amid the souls that wail in night . Then Uriel felt his beauty fade away , And a great grief lay on him day by day ; But , as his splendour withered for his sin , Stronger and brighter grew the love within ; And so in silence , in his fiery jail , He stood , rejoiced that love could yet prevail . One day the ancient Gods that howl below Accosted Uriel : — " Uriel , this great woe Will never pass ; the stars will seek the sun , The universe shall end as it begun ; But , thro' the endless circle of the years That angols know , shall neither hopes nor fears "Visit the dwellers in this-world of fire . Therefore , when hate and anguish shall inspire , Ease your full heart with curses deep as ours ; Your love will never win you Eden ' s bowers . " Then Uriel answered : — " He who made the night Crowned it with stars and with the pure delight Of the clear moon : He who made all things frail Decrees that sovran beauty shall prevail . There is no sorrow , friends , but it has still Some soul of sweetness in it ; there ' s no ill But comes from Him who made it , and is good As fruit in season , leaf in budding wood . But if in this drear world all hope were vain , — If penance were eternal ; if such pain He could inflict and I endure , —my will Would be to love , thro' all this cruel ill . " He ended ; and the ancient Gods below Ceast howling , when they saw the sweet , calm glow That wandered over that good angel ' s face , Making a moonlight round them , till the grace That was in his brave bearing and mild speech Melted the hatred from the hearts of each ; And they stood up , and thro * the streets of hell The sound of countless voices rose and fell , Praising the silent soul that dwells above , Singing , " We love Thee , Lord , for Thou art Love . " Then the dark dungeon burst its grates and bars , And light came glowing in from suns and stars , Lapsing down dreadful rifts ; the shapes below Saw fragments of blue sky above them glow , Like windows thro * the rents ; they felt the air Cooling their branded foreheads ; everywhere They saw the faces of young angols shine , And golden fingers point to thrones divine ; While a low whisper murmured like the breeze That comes and goes on tops of mulberry-trees ; And thus it said : — " O , loving angels , rise , Borne by strong love thro' the unfolding skies . There is no sin , no sorrow , and no hell , But they must cease , where hearts love long and well , Whore lips praise God in anguish and confess There ' s love in pain , —that even wrong can bless . " The whisper ceast ; and ovcry soul , forgiven By Love for Love ' s sweet sake , went up to heaven . Each stood before his throne—fair , glad , and calm ; And God sat in the midst and hoard the psalm Which joyful angels raised in chorus bland ; And Uriel sat like God , at God ' s right hand , M
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Nov . & , 1850 . ] ffllje SUiI& £ t \ 789
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 9, 1850, page 789, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1858/page/21/
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