ONLY A DREAM.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1215, 20 January 1886, Page 6

ONLY A DREAM.

The doctor had gone away at midnight, saying he would look in again in the morning, and the tired watchers had sought a few moments rest while the sick man slept,but they were within reach of the faintest call.

The light burned low, and out of the gloom strange shadows developed themselves into almost human shapes and hovered about the bedroom wherein the dying man lay. Suddenly the white head lying on the pillow moved, the sunken face grew less pinched and worn in the fitful light, and the eye of the old man opened wide with a troubled, wistful expression.

" Millicent," he called very feebly, " Millicent, I have had a bad dream."

The shadow of an old woman, with white locks and a form bowed with age, came in swiftly at the open door ; she sat down beside him, -and held in hers the helpless ; hands. There was a sob in the voice that said tremblingly : "It was only atlream, Reuben." j " But such a dreadful dream — that my hair was white, and I was old — an old man — and that we had graves. Millicent, what did it mean ?" Sob — sob — sob. She bent over him tenderly and stroked the veined and wrinkled hands with loving touch. But she could not I speak ; strong hands they had once been, and tireless to do her bidding. " And in that dream you were old, too, bonny Millicent. Your hair was snow-white instead of golden, and your soft hands— dear hands — were hard and withered. And the children, dear, the little ones, were gone. Are the children safe, Millicent." " Aye, Reuben," sobbed the shadow, " the children are safe." Thank G-od, then, it was only a dream, and your hair is not white and lam not old. It was only a dream, after all." " Only a dream, Reuben." With his hand in hers he slept again, and glad smiles crept over his wan face and a look of his youth trembled on his closed eyelids. Tender words escaped from his pale lips as his soul drifted among the argosies of the unknown seas. " Hark !" he cried with the fervor of immortal youth. "They are singing in the church. I bear my Millicent's voice." He broke forth into a strain of devotional music that rose and fell in waves of rapture. The watchers stole in and looked at him and at each other in troubled surprise. He did not see' them; his eyes were fixed beyond^as he sang . " No chilling winds nor poisonous breath Can reach that healthful shore ; Sickness and sorrow,; pain and death Are felt and feared no more," "Millicent — my wife till death do us part — we are not old. It was only, a dream." As the daylight shone into the room ' it touched the pillow with 'the gold of eternal youth. The did' man had ceased to dream.