Doctor and Mrs. Jackson 145 



" and if the Doctor and his wife would but come 

 back," she said, "he would surely die happy. 

 They should be here by now, if 'twere like it 

 was in the old times : but they went off without 

 their young ones when the men began to rum- 

 mage in the tower, and I doubt they'll never 

 come back again now. 



The old Scholar was only half conscious, but 

 he seemed to know me and kept my hand in his. 

 I made up my mind not to leave him, and sat 

 there till the shadow of the tower grew long 

 enough to reach us, and then till the great 

 harvest moon arose over the distant corn-sheaves. 

 Sometimes he would murmur a few words, and 

 once or twice I caught the favourite old 

 treasures, " Unde coronabitur patientia tua," 

 and " Nimis avide consolationem quaeris." And 

 so we passed the night, till the moon sank again, 

 and ' the high lawns appeared, Under the open- 

 ing eyelids of the Morn.' 



Then I left him for a few minutes, and 

 descending to the garden filled the earthenware 

 pan with fresh water, and scattered food on the 

 dewy grass in the dim hope that the Doctor and 



