A LITTLE SOUL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2130, 20 December 1894, Page 29

A LITTLE SOUL.

(Specially written for the Witness Christmm

Number of 1594.")

BY ELISE JESPIXASSE.

Around the Great Throne tho archangel* wera gathered to receive the mandates of God. And everywhere thwe was the rustling of angels' wings as the serried ranks of the myriads bowed before the Master.' Far and wide, through the arches of heaven, streamed out the Eternal Light, spreading its radiance through tht realms of its illimitable space. And at the foot of the Throne knelt Michael, the angel of the Sun and the keeper of the gates of Life, craving a boon. " Flying up from earth to heaven I saw,' 1 he said, " through an open casement a young wife watohing the sun sink into the ocean. The last red rays of the dying day fell acrosi her face upon the pillow, and as they passed away she smiled. For her thoughts were with her husband, far out at sea, and coming home to her. When it shall be my time again to fly to earth bid me, Master, carry to her eyes the light of another day." Then God turned from Michael, who knelt at hia feet, and looked at Gabriel, who stood at His right hand. But the Great Archangel, who writes forever in the Book of Death, shook Mb head sadly, and gently closed the ponderous volume. And again the wings rustled, and the myriads moved apart and left amongst them a single space.

"Grant ma one boon, Great Master," supplicated Michael. "She has known but the lova of one short year, and even now lies waiting .the birth of her ohild. To my hando, 0 Master, thou ha»t committed the keys of the gates of Life. Give to me, then, a sonl that I may send it to earth, and when the father shall look into his baby's eyes he shall see in them the mother's smile."

At these words upon all that mighty host there fell the shadow of the Divine compassion, and a great sigh passed, like a whisper, into the depths of infinity. And this grief of Hia angels', sorrowing for the hard lot of humanity, touched the heart of God, and from that essence of infinite pity was created in tin instant the purest and most precious thing in haaven or on carth — the soul of a child.

Michael laid upon it the hand of Light that it might be a child of the beautiful. Raphael gave it the wings of Love that it might fly the faster and surer to its goal. Gabriel alone gave it nothing, and stood aloof. Then the great archangel brought it to the Throne and prayed for the blessing of God. And God blessed it. Whereupon Michael shook it free and sent it flying to earth.

But Satan, watching upon the conftuei of heaveu, bethought him that this child, so bleeeed, might grow into a man so pure In heart as to be beyond the reach of evil. So he cast about for means to prevent the little goul from entering the earthly tenement awaiting \t. First h,o threw the black veil of Darkness upon its path. Then he flaw across the eky, leaving behind him the furrow of Mb forked tail, and lashed to fury the storms that lurk in the caverns of space.

The little soul, winging its way to earth, was affrighted at the howling of the thunder and the flashing of th« lightning. But though the wind carried it this way and that and the darkness appalled it, still it persevered on its way. Louder roared the thunder, faster fell the rain, and moie and more threatening were the thousand voices of tho wind. The little soul might have lost courage and turned back, but the winga that Kaphael gave it kept it np and bore it on, and the blessing of God strengthened it against the powers of the Prince of Darkness.

But the tempest was mighty in its giant strength, and the poor little soul was frail and feeble. And time, the inexorable, had turned his glass again ere the journey was completed. The fi.r»t faint streaks of the coming dawn pushed their way through the distant horizon as the little soul, biuised, battered, and wearied with its struggles, reached the home of the sailor's wife, It was a lonely house, standing by the seashore and girded by a wall. Below, at the foot of the cliffs, the waves dashed upon the rocks, and the boa stretched on to where, borne upon its bosom, the ships were sailing home.

Tie little soul, buffeted by the wind, the featkors of its wings soiled and broken, had fluttered painfully to the ground. But now with a last brave effort it dashed itself against the wall, striving to mount and fly once mere. But the wind came with a rush and bore it down. Again and again it flew to the wall, flapping its poor little wings against the cold atones like a wounded bird.

Within the mother lay upon the bed, thinking of tho husband she loved out on the deep, and of the child that was never to lie upon her breast and fondle her with its tiny hands. A candle burned In the room, and cast its feeble glimmer through the curtained window. The little soul saw It, and dashed itself against the panes; but the waves beat upon the rockß and the watchers never heard— never heard the despairiog cry that the wind caught op and bore away over the ocean.

The sun had risen, crowned with the glory of the morning. A Bailor knelt by the bedside of his wife. She lay still and quiet, with a smile upon her lips, aB though »he heard the rustling of the great wings. The door waa open now, but the little soul had come too late. -"' "

— The Suez Canal is only 88 miles long, but it reduces the distance from England to India by sea nearly 4000 miles.

— A curious history is attached to the well* known toy, "Pharaoh's serpent." It coDS'sted of a little pill to which a lighted match was applied, when the snake crawled forth aud ■writhed and twisted in a most serpentine and fwficinating fashion. The pills sold like wildfire—which indeed they were— and brought the inventor between £20,000 aud £30,000. But they also cost him his life. In working upon au "improvement" in hia labratory, he in" haled the fumes of the chemicals he waa usinjt and died from the noißonoua effects produce* won him.