FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>  
, it seemed. They told him the truth because he would have nothing else, although they shrank from doing it until the last moment of their stay. They knew it would be like giving him his death-blow. Mary, standing in the door, saw the look of unspeakable horror that stole slowly over his face, then his helpless sinking back among the pillows, and the twitching of his hands as he clenched them convulsively. Not a word or a groan escaped him, but the wild despair of his set face and staring eyes was more than she could endure. She rushed out of the room and out of the house to the little loft above the woodshed, where no one could hear her frantic sobbing. It was hours before she ventured back into the house. It would only add to his misery to see her distress, she knew, so she left him to the little mother's ministrations. Anticipating such a result, the surgeons had brought several appliances to make his confinement less irksome. There was a hammock arrangement with pulleys, by which he might be swung into different positions, and out into a wheeled chair. They fastened the screws into walls and ceiling, put the apparatus in place and carefully tested it before leaving. Then they were at the end of their skill. They could do nothing more. There was nothing that could be done. Several times in the days that followed, the nurse spoke of the brave way in which Jack seemed to be meeting his fate. But Mrs. Ware shook her head sadly. She knew why no complaint escaped him. She had seen him act the Spartan before to spare her. Mary, too, knew what his persistent silence meant. He was not always so careful to veil the suffering which showed through his eyes when he was alone with her. She knew that half the time when he appeared to be listening to what she was reading, he was so absorbed in his bitter thoughts that he did not hear a word. "_An eagle, broken-winged and drooping in a cage, he gloomed upon his lot and cursed the vital force within that would not let him die._" One morning, when he had been settled in his wheeled chair, she brought out the story of the Jester's Sword, saying, tremulously, "Will you do something for me? Jack? Read this little book yourself. I know you don't halfway listen to what I read any more, and I don't blame you, but this seems to have been written just on purpose for you." He took the book from her listlessly, and opened it because she wished it. Watching him from the doorway, she wa
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>  



Top keywords:
escaped
 

brought

 

wheeled

 

meeting

 

showed

 
appeared
 
listening
 

careful

 
complaint
 

silence


persistent

 

reading

 
Spartan
 

suffering

 
halfway
 

listen

 
tremulously
 
wished
 

opened

 

Watching


doorway

 

listlessly

 

written

 

purpose

 

drooping

 

winged

 

gloomed

 

broken

 

bitter

 

thoughts


cursed

 
morning
 

settled

 

Jester

 

absorbed

 
pulleys
 

clenched

 
convulsively
 

sinking

 
pillows

twitching
 

woodshed

 
rushed
 
endure
 

despair

 

staring

 
helpless
 

moment

 
shrank
 

giving