Barriers Burned Away

ng in their dumb way in the December storm. So open and defective was the dwelling in its construction, that eddying currents of cold air found admittance

from them, as she tried in vain to catch a glimpse of the darkening road that ran at a distance of about fifty yards from the house. As the furious blast shook the frai

another occupant of the room. From a bed in the corn

r the bed, and in a voice full of pat

he

t he MUST be

atter about which painful misgivings could not be banished. The quick ear of the sick man caught the tone, and in a querulous

the case less urgent, I could almost wish he would not try to make his way through it. But then we know what Dennis is; he neve

raised himself in bed with sudden and unwonted strength. His eyes grew wild and almost fierce, and in a sharp, hurried voice,

that you should speak thus! How can

nted in all my hopes? I once believed in God and tried to serve Him. But if, as I have been taught, all this evil and misfort

a terribly vindictive light, akin to insanity, and, in a harsh, high voice, as unnatural as his appearance and words, he continued: "Rememb

is, think

determined to study law. What hopes I had! I already grasped political honors that seemed within my reach, for you know I was a ready speaker. If my friends could only have seen that I was peculiarly fitted for public life and advanced me sufficient means, I would have returned it tenfold. But no; I was forced into other things for which I had no great aptness or knowledge, and years of struggling poverty and repeated disappointment followed. At last your father died and gave us enough to buy a cheap farm out here. But w

. His tears ceased to flow, while his eyes

. "He may get lost in the st

could not see its terrible expression in the dusk; but she shuddered as he hissed in her ear, "If this should happen-if my miserable death is t

alf-way up to the top rail, and she knew it was drifting. The thought of her ruddy, active, joyous-hearted boy, whose affection and hopefulness had been the broad track of sunlight on her hard path-the thought of his lying white and still beneath one of these great banks, just where she could never know till spring rains and suns revealed to an indifferent stranger his sleeping-place-now nearly overwhelmed her also, and even her faith wavered on the brink of the dark gulf of

insanity. If this test failed, would he not, in spite of all she could say or do, curse God and die, as he had said? But she had been g

axed his hold upon her arm, and with

uld only leave you with him as your protector and support, I believe

so to do, my father, for

as he heard his father's significant words-the quick-witted youth realized the situation. While he loved his father dearly, and honored him for his many good traits, he was also conscious of his faults, especially this most serious one now threatening such fatal consequences-that of charging to God the f

ol and patient endurance before, now gave way utterly, and clung for a few moments to her son's neck with hysteric

outline of his son with a bewildered stare, his mind too wea

her, what is the matter? Speak to me! Oh! I have killed her by my rash entrance," the sick man's man

ad?" he asked, in

" cried the son, forgetti

fell upon his arm that his mother had shuddered under a little before, and the question was this time hissed in his ear, "Is your mother dead?" For a moment he had no power to answer, and his father continued: "What a fool I w

g tones. "Hush, I entreat," and in his desperatio

ined deaf to the voice of her beloved son, and his loud tones

ing, father and son listened for a second. Again, a little louder, t

aimed, "Oh, mother, I am here; don'

called," sai

d taking his wife's hand, cried, "Oh, Ethel, don't die! don

hand across her brow as if to clear away confusion of mind, said: "Don't be alarmed; it's

cies of her hard lot, she had ne

f her husband's positi

ut of your bed? You w

tters little if yo

uch to me," cried

, and he was gasping for breath. Tenderly they carried him back to his bed, and he was too weak now to do more than quietly lie upon it and gaze at them. After replenishing the fire, and looking at the little ones that were sleeping in the outer room, they shaded the lamp, an

tened, his face grew softer an

for, mother, at Bankville. This, the druggist said, would produce quiet a

e and mother, pale and silent, watched between her loved ones. The troubled expression was gone, for the ranks of her little band had closed up, and all were about her in one more brief rest in the forward and uncertain march of life. She seemed looking intently at something far off-something better discerned by the spiritual than by the natural eye. Disappointments had been bitter, poverty hard and grinding, but she had learned to escape into a large world that was fast becoming real to her strong imagination. While her husband was indulging in chimerical visions of boundless prosperity here on earth which he would bring to pass by some lucky stroke of fortune or invention, she also was picturing to herself grander things which God would realize to her beyond time and earth. When alone, in moments of rest from incessant toil, she would take down the great family Bible, and with her finger on some description of the "new heav