er bosom
and kissed him. Even as she did so Harkness breathed his last. With a
deep sigh, Agnes allowed the corpse to sink gradually down again upon
the bed, composed the limbs, closed the eyes, and bound up the fallen
jaw. These sad offices finished, her next care was to see that the
body was properly interred in a separate grave by itself--a matter
which was quite difficult of accomplishment. But she succeeded in
having the burial so effected.
The death of Mr. Harkness under such circumstances was, of course,
quite distressing to Agnes Arnold, and somehow or other she could not
banish from her mind a presentiment of an additional calamity that was
about to befall her. Yet her mind was perfectly at ease, so far as she
herself was concerned.
Never at any moment could death surprise her; for, from early years,
she had lived up to the admonition of our Saviour, "Be ye also ready."
Yet this gloom, that wrapped itself around her like an ominous pall,
she could not penetrate, nor cast from her, no matter how strenuously
she tried to do so. More devoted even than before, did she now become
in her ministrations to the sick and suffering people of Shreveport.
AGNES SAVES A CHILD, BUT DIES HERSELF.
The last family which Agnes nursed lived in the northern portion of
the city, and consisted of a mother and three children; the youngest a
baby twelve months old.
Ordinarily they had been in middling circumstances, but having lost
her husband by a railroad accident six months previously, the widow
was reduced to quite a straightened condition. And when the fever
seized her, she was in utter despair at the thought of being taken
away from her dear ones.
But when they brought Agnes to nurse her, and told her of the
wonderful good fortune that always attended the heroic girl, she
seemed to take fresh spirit and gain strength.
As yet the baby was unscathed by the dreadful plague, And it would
have been sent away, could they have got any person to take it. That,
however, was impossible.
"Never mind, Mrs. Green, do not let that subject worry you any more. I
will take good care of the baby. They shall not take it away from
you," said Agnes, hugging the infant to her.
"O, God bless you! God bless you, always," exclaimed the poor mother,
thrilled with the deepest gratitude. "My darling! my baby! my baby!"
True to her word, Agnes never neglected the little thing, though
sometimes, between it and her patients, sh
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