After the Storm

"Before he had saved me?" said Irene, taking a deep breath.

"Yes; but I don't think there was any chance of saving there, and I

was glad that I waked up when I did."

"What else did you dream?" asked Irene.

"Oh, I can't tell you all I dreamed. Once I saw you fall from the

high rock just above West Point and go dashing down into the river.

Then I saw you chased by a mad bull."

"And no one came to my rescue?"

"Oh yes, there was more than one who tried to save you. First, your

father ran in between you and the bull; but he dashed over him. Then

I saw Mr. Emerson rushing up with a pitchfork, and he got before the

mad animal and pointed the sharp prongs at his eyes; but the bull

tore down on him and tossed him away up into the air. I awoke as I

saw him falling on the sharp-pointed horns that were held up to

catch him."

"Well, Margaret, you certainly had a night of horrors," said Irene,

in a sober way.

"Indeed, miss, and I had; such a night as I don't wish to have

again."

"And your dreaming was all about me?"

"Yes."

"And I was always in trouble or danger?"

"Yes, always; and it was mostly your own fault, too. And that

reminds me of what the minister told us in his sermon last Sunday.

He said that there were a great many kinds of trouble in this

world--some coming from the outside and some coming from the inside;

that the outside troubles, which we couldn't help, were generally

easiest to be borne; while the inside troubles, which we might have

prevented, were the bitterest things in life, because there was

remorse as well as suffering. I understood very well what he meant."

"I am afraid," said Irene, speaking partly to herself, "that most of

my troubles come from the inside."

"I'm afraid they do," spoke out the frank domestic.

"Margaret!"

"Indeed, miss, and I do think so. If you'd only get right

here"--laying her hand upon her breast--"somebody beside yourself

would be a great deal happier. There now, child, I've said it; and

you needn't go to getting angry with me."

"They are often our best friends who use the plainest speech," said

Irene. "No, Margaret, I am not going to be angry with one whom I

know to be true-hearted."

"Not truer-hearted than your husband, Miss Irene; nor half so

loving."

"Why did you say that?" Margaret started at the tone of voice in

which this interrogation was made.

"Because I think so," she answered naively.

Irene looked at her for some moments with a penetrating gaze, and

then said, with an affected carelessness of tone-"Your preacher and your dreams have made you quite a moralist."