108 
FEAR OF DEATH. 
he could hardly keep his feet; and he is 
always doing the most reckless things/’ 
“ That is no sign he should not be afraid 
of dying,” replied Richard. “ I can tell you, 
it is a very different thing doing such a thing 
as that, with people to look at you, from 
lying awake and alone, night after night, 
with nothing to think of but death staring 
you in the face, and coming a little nearer, 
and a little nearer, every breath you draw.” 
“ To-be-sure!” said Sidney: “it seems 
very much harder.” 
“And yet,” continued Richard, musingly, 
“ how many people—especially women—die 
happy and don’t seem to mind it much ! that 
is, they mind it, of course, and think of those 
they leave behind,—hut they don’t fear it, 
and the}’' seem to die as they go to sleep.” 
“I suppose they are helped,” said Sidney, 
in a low voice. He knew r that Richard was 
thinking of his own mother’s death. “ I hope 
if Jack does get well he will be a better boy,” 
he continued, after a pause. “It does seem 
as if he had some good in him, don’t it? And 
that Sarah Anne looks as if she would be a 
nice girl if she only had any chance for her 
life. Did you ever see such a looking house ? 
