Beth Woodburn

Everything, the hills outside, the pictures on the walls, even the very furniture, looked at you in mute farewell. Beth leaned back in her rocker and looked through the open door

ed her favorite meadow where the clover bloomed last June, and that the maples along the

et her see how much. Aunt Prudence, too, dear old soul, seemed sorry to have her go, but she had her own peculiar way of expressing it, namely, by getting crosser every day. She did not approve o

th his father on business more than a week before. Arthur was with them to-day, but he was to leave on the early mor

uired immediately by a patient several miles away. Arthur and she sat down by that same old parlor window in the hush of the coming night; a few white clouds were spread like angel wings

o leave home, Be

ht I'd be so glad to have a change, and yet i

ilent again

d for you to go away so far and be a missiona

did not know the meaning of that sm

ll," he said with a s

w your talent could be u

ce," she thought with a smile, "and he is go

see how," s

s would be better supported. Now, if someone with bright talents were to write fascinating stories of Arabian life or life in Palestine, see how muc

d at his e

hur; I could

a moment with a s

e's toil? Look, Beth," he said, pointing upward to the picture o

't," she said dr

u enter your Father's serv

ned away and she

ve you, Beth. I have loved you since we were children together. Will you be m

everently. Tick! tick! tick! from the old clock in the silen

most-I thought you would always be that. Oh, Arthur! Arthur! how c

was wounded! Those moments were awful in their silence. The darkness deepened in the old parlor. There was a sound of voices passing in the street. The church bell broke the stillness. Softly the old calm crept over his brow, and he raised his face and

ad so reverently for a moment. His white lips murmured something, but she on

ould rather he had looked sad. That smile-she could ne

out there. They had grown up together, and he had even lived in her home those few years before he went to college. No, she had never dreamed of marrying Arthur! But oh, he was wounded so! She had never seen him look like that before. And he had hoped that she would share his life and his labor. She thought how he had pictured her far away under the burning sun of Palestine, bathing his heated brow and cheering him for fresh effort. He had pictured, perhaps, a little humble home, quiet and peaceful, somewhere amid the snow-crested mountains of the East, where he would walk with her in the cool of night-fal

tle Beth." Yes, she would be "little Beth" to him, forever now, the little Beth that he h

h-little Beth.