YOURS WITH ALL 'MY HEART 



he'll take care of you, mamma, and Robbie, 

 and - and - dear little Gyp ! ' 



Little Gyp had come creeping up from his 

 vigil at her feet, and rooted his cold nose 

 under the little snow-flake of a hand, which 

 fluttered over his head in a weak and trem- 

 ulous caress, then fell, frozen to rest, ere 

 life's hard task was half begun. Then the 

 three watchers beheld a strange, mystic light 

 grow and grow in the little face, it wasn't 

 wan and sad any longer, the good God- 

 man must have come to meet that little child 

 with his ow^n light, shining out of the black 

 dark ! For Sissy was gone - - gone like a 

 fluttering snow-bird into the wild storm. 



4 Dear little Gyp ! ' His name was last 

 on her lips, her last caress was on his poor 

 little mongrel head; and his quavering wail 

 was first to rise above the weird night wind, 

 while the other two wept in silence. 



Surely, in this the third year of her widow- 

 hood, sorrow had not come single-handed to 

 Myra Draper. Poor Robbie's bright, hope- 

 ful boyhood, bright in spite of poverty and 

 deprivation, had been overcast with a cruel 

 blow; he was a hopeless cripple, his strong 

 right hand blown to atoms with a giant- 



49 



