TWIN-LOVE

When John Vincent, after waiting twelve years, married Phebe
Etheridge, the whole neighborhood experienced that sense of relief
and satisfaction which follows the triumph of the right. Not that
the fact of a true love is ever generally recognized and respected
when it is first discovered; for there is a perverse quality in
American human nature which will not accept the existence of any
fine, unselfish passion, until it has been tested and established
beyond peradventure. There were two views of the case when John
Vincent's love for Phebe, and old Reuben Etheridge's hard
prohibition of the match, first became known to the community. The
girls and boys, and some of the matrons, ranged themselves at once
on the side of the lovers, but a large majority of the older men
and a few of the younger supported the tyrannical father.

Reuben Etheridge was rich, and, in addition to what his daughter
would naturally inherit from him, she already possessed more than
her lover, at the time of their betrothal. This in the eyes
of one class was a sufficient reason for the father's hostility.
When low natures live (as they almost invariably do) wholly in the
present, they neither take tenderness from the past nor warning
from the possibilities of the future. It is the exceptional men
and women who remember their youth. So, these lovers received a
nearly equal amount of sympathy and condemnation; and only slowly,
partly through their quiet fidelity and patience, and partly
through the improvement in John Vincent's worldly circumstances,
was the balance changed. Old Reuben remained an unflinching despot
to the last: if any relenting softness touched his heart, he
sternly concealed it; and such inference as could be drawn from the
fact that he, certainly knowing what would follow his death,
bequeathed his daughter her proper share of his goods, was all that
could be taken for consent.

They were married: John, a grave man in middle age, weather-beaten
and worn by years of hard work and self-denial, yet not beyond the
restoration of a milder second youth; and Phebe a sad, weary woman,
whose warmth of longing had been exhausted, from whom youth and its
uncalculating surrenders of hope and feeling had gone forever.
They began their wedded life under the shadow of the death out of
which it grew; and when, after a ceremony in which neither
bridesmaid nor groomsman stood by their side, they united their
divided homes, it seemed to their neighbors that a separated
husband and wife had come together again, not that the relation was
new to either.

John Vincent loved his wife with the tenderness of an innocent man,
but all his tenderness could not avail to lift the weight of
settled melancholy which had gathered upon her. Disappointment,
waiting, yearning, indulgence in long lament and self-pity, the
morbid cultivation of unhappy fancies--all this had wrought its
work upon her, and it was too late to effect a cure. In the night
she awoke to weep at his side, because of the years when she had
awakened to weep alone; by day she kept up her old habit of
foreboding, although the evening steadily refuted the morning; and
there were times when, without any apparent cause, she would fall
into a dark, despairing mood which her husband's greatest care and
cunning could only slowly dispel.

Two or three years passed, and new life came to the Vincent farm.
One day, between midnight and dawn, the family pair was doubled;
the cry of twin sons was heard in the hushed house. The father
restrained his happy wonder in his concern for the imperilled life
of the mother; he guessed that she had anticipated death, and she
now hung by a thread so slight that her simple will might snap it.
But her will, fortunately, was as faint as her consciousness; she
gradually drifted out of danger, taking her returning strength with
a passive acquiescence rather than with joy. She was hardly paler
than her wont, but the lurking shadow seemed to have vanished from
her eyes, and John Vincent felt that her features had assumed a new
expression, the faintly perceptible stamp of some spiritual change.


It was a happy day for him when, propped against his breast and
gently held by his warm, strong arm, the twin boys were first
brought to be laid upon her lap. Two staring, dark-faced
creatures, with restless fists and feet, they were alike in every
least feature of their grotesque animality. Phebe placed a hand
under the head of each, and looked at them for a long time in
silence.

"Why is this?" she said, at last, taking hold of a narrow pink
ribbon, which was tied around the wrist of one.

"He's the oldest, sure," the nurse answered. "Only by fifteen
minutes or so, but it generally makes a difference when twins come
to be named; and you may see with your own eyes that there's no
telling of 'em apart otherways."

"Take off the ribbon, then," said Phebe quietly; "_I_ know them."

"Why, ma'am, it's always done, where they're so like! And I'll
never be able to tell which is which; for they sleep and wake and
feed by the same clock. And you might mistake, after all, in
giving 'em names--"

"There is no oldest or youngest, John; they are two and yet one:
this is mine, and this is yours."

"I see no difference at all, Phebe," said John; "and how can we
divide them?"

"We will not divide," she answered; "I only meant it as a sign."

She smiled, for the first time in many days. He was glad of heart,
but did not understand her. "What shall we call them?" he
asked. "Elias and Reuben, after our fathers?"

"No, John; their names must be David and Jonathan."

And so they were called. And they grew, not less, but more alike,
in passing through the stages of babyhood. The ribbon of the older
one had been removed, and the nurse would have been distracted, but
for Phebe's almost miraculous instinct. The former comforted
herself with the hope that teething would bring a variation to the
two identical mouths; but no! they teethed as one child. John,
after desperate attempts, which always failed in spite of the
headaches they gave him, postponed the idea of distinguishing one
from the other, until they should be old enough to develop some
dissimilarity of speech, or gait, or habit. All trouble might have
been avoided, had Phebe consented to the least variation in their
dresses; but herein she was mildly immovable.

"Not yet," was her set reply to her husband; and one day, when he
manifested a little annoyance at her persistence, she turned to
him, holding a child on each knee, and said with a gravity which
silenced him thenceforth: "John, can you not see that our burden
has passed into them? Is there no meaning in this--that two
children who are one in body and face and nature, should be given
to us at our time of life, after such long disappointment and
trouble? Our lives were held apart; theirs were united before they
were born, and I dare not turn them in different directions.
Perhaps I do not know all that the Lord intended to say to us,
in sending them; but His hand is here!"

"I was only thinking of their good," John meekly answered. "If
they are spared to grow up, there must be some way of knowing one
from the other."

"THEY will not need it, and I, too, think only of them. They
have taken the cross from my heart, and I will lay none on theirs.
I am reconciled to my life through them, John; you have been very
patient and good with me, and I will yield to you in all things but
in this. I do not think I shall live to see them as men grown;
yet, while we are together, I feel clearly what it is right to do.
Can you not, just once, have a little faith without knowledge,
John?"

"I'll try, Phebe," he said. "Any way, I'll grant that the boys
belong to you more than to me."

Phebe Vincent's character had verily changed. Her attacks of semi-
hysterical despondency never returned; her gloomy prophecies
ceased. She was still grave, and the trouble of so many years
never wholly vanished from her face; but she performed every duty
of her life with at least a quiet willingness, and her home became
the abode of peace; for passive content wears longer than
demonstrative happiness.

David and Jonathan grew as one boy: the taste and temper of one was
repeated in the other, even as the voice and features. Sleeping or
waking, grieved or joyous, well or ill, they lived a single life,
and it seemed so natural for one to answer to the other's name,
that they probably would have themselves confused their own
identities, but for their mother's unerring knowledge. Perhaps
unconsciously guided by her, perhaps through the voluntary action
of their own natures, each quietly took the other's place when
called upon, even to the sharing of praise or blame at school, the
friendships and quarrels of the playground. They were healthy and
happy lads, and John Vincent was accustomed to say to his
neighbors, "They're no more trouble than one would be; and yet
they're four hands instead of two."

Phebe died when they were fourteen, saying to them, with almost her
latest breath, "Be one, always!" Before her husband could decide
whether to change her plan of domestic education, they were passing
out of boyhood, changing in voice, stature, and character with a
continued likeness which bewildered and almost terrified him. He
procured garments of different colors, but they were accustomed to
wear each article in common, and the result was only a mixture of
tints for both. They were sent to different schools, to be
returned the next day, equally pale, suffering, and incapable of
study. Whatever device was employed, they evaded it by a mutual
instinct which rendered all external measures unavailing. To John
Vincent's mind their resemblance was an accidental misfortune,
which had been confirmed through their mother's fancy. He felt
that they were bound by some deep, mysterious tie, which, inasmuch
as it might interfere with all practical aspects of life, ought to
be gradually weakened. Two bodies, to him, implied two distinct
men, and it was wrong to permit a mutual dependence which
prevented either from exercising his own separate will and
judgment.

But, while he was planning and pondering, the boys became young
men, and he was an old man. Old, and prematurely broken; for he
had worked much, borne much, and his large frame held only a
moderate measure of vital force. A great weariness fell upon him,
and his powers began to give way, at first slowly, but then with
accelerated failure. He saw the end coming, long before his sons
suspected it; his doubt, for their sakes, was the only thing which
made it unwelcome. It was "upon his mind" (as his Quaker neighbors
would say) to speak to them of the future, and at last the proper
moment came.

It was a stormy November evening. Wind and rain whirled and drove
among the trees outside, but the sitting-room of the old farm-house
was bright and warm. David and Jonathan, at the table, with their
arms over each other's backs and their brown locks mixed together,
read from the same book: their father sat in the ancient rocking-
chair before the fire, with his feet upon a stool. The housekeeper
and hired man had gone to bed, and all was still in the house.

John waited until he heard the volume closed, and then spoke.

"Boys," he said, "let me have a bit of talk with you. I don't seem
to get over my ailments rightly,--never will, maybe. A man must
think of things while there's time, and say them when they HAVE
to be said. I don't know as there's any particular hurry in my
case; only, we never can tell, from one day to another. When
I die, every thing will belong to you two, share and share alike,
either to buy another farm with the money out, or divide this: I
won't tie you up in any way. But two of you will need two farms
for two families; for you won't have to wait twelve years, like
your mother and me."

"We don't want another farm, father!" said David and Jonathan
together.

"I know you don't think so, now. A wife seemed far enough off from
me when I was your age. You've always been satisfied to be with
each other, but that can't last. It was partly your mother's
notion; I remember her saying that our burden had passed into you.
I never quite understood what she meant, but I suppose it must
rather be the opposite of what WE had to bear."

The twins listened with breathless attention while their father,
suddenly stirred by the past, told them the story of his long
betrothal.

"And now," he exclaimed, in conclusion, "it may be putting wild
ideas into your two heads, but I must say it! THAT was where I
did wrong--wrong to her and to me,--in waiting! I had no right to
spoil the best of our lives; I ought to have gone boldly, in broad
day, to her father's house, taken her by the hand, and led her
forth to be my wife. Boys, if either of you comes to love a woman
truly, and she to love you, and there is no reason why God (I don't
say man) should put you asunder, do as I ought to have done, not as
I did! And, maybe, this advice is the best legacy I can leave
you."

"But, father," said David, speaking for both, "we have never
thought of marrying."

"Likely enough," their father answered; "we hardly ever think of
what surely comes. But to me, looking back, it's plain. And this
is the reason why I want you to make me a promise, and as solemn as
if I was on my death-bed. Maybe I shall be, soon."

Tears gathered in the eyes of the twins. "What is it, father?"
they both said.

"Nothing at all to any other two boys, but I don't know how
YOU'll take it. What if I was to ask you to live apart for a
while?"

"Oh father!" both cried. They leaned together, cheek pressing
cheek, and hand clasping hand, growing white and trembling. John
Vincent, gazing into the fire, did not see their faces, or his
purpose might have been shaken.

"I don't say NOW," he went on. "After a while, when--well, when
I'm dead. And I only mean a beginning, to help you toward what
HAS to be. Only a month; I don't want to seem hard to you; but
that's little, in all conscience. Give me your word: say, `For
mother's sake!'"

There was a long pause. Then David and Jonathan said, in low,
faltering voices, "For mother's sake, I promise."

"Remember that you were only boys to her. She might have made all
this seem easier, for women have reasons for things no man can
answer. Mind, within a year after I'm gone!"

He rose and tottered out of the room.

The twins looked at each other: David said, "Must we?" and
Jonathan, "How can we?" Then they both thought, "It may be a long
while yet." Here was a present comfort, and each seemed to hold it
firmly in holding the hand of the other, as they fell asleep side
by side.

The trial was nearer than they imagined. Their father died before
the winter was over; the farm and other property was theirs, and
they might have allowed life to solve its mysteries as it rolled
onwards, but for their promise to the dead. This must be
fulfilled, and then--one thing was certain; they would never again
separate.

"The sooner the better," said David. "It shall be the visit to our
uncle and cousins in Indiana. You will come with me as far as
Harrisburg; it may be easier to part there than here. And our new
neighbors, the Bradleys, will want your help for a day or two,
after getting home."

"It is less than death," Jonathan answered, "and why should it seem
to be more? We must think of father and mother, and all those
twelve years; now I know what the burden was."

"And we have never really borne any part of it! Father must have
been right in forcing us to promise."

Every day the discussion was resumed, and always with the same
termination. Familiarity with the inevitable step gave them
increase of courage; yet, when the moment had come and gone, when,
speeding on opposite trains, the hills and valleys multiplied
between them with terrible velocity, a pang like death cut to the
heart of each, and the divided life became a chill, oppressive
dream.

During the separation no letters passed between them. When the
neighbors asked Jonathan for news of his brother, he always
replied, "He is well," and avoided further speech with such
evidence of pain that they spared him. An hour before the month
drew to an end, he walked forth alone, taking the road to the
nearest railway station. A stranger who passed him at the entrance
of a thick wood, three miles from home, was thunderstruck on
meeting the same person shortly after, entering the wood from the
other side; but the farmers in the near fields saw two figures
issuing from the shade, hand in hand.

Each knew the other's month, before they slept, and the last thing
Jonathan said, with his head on David's shoulder, was, "You must
know our neighbors, the Bradleys, and especially Ruth." In the
morning, as they dressed, taking each other's garments at random,
as of old, Jonathan again said, "I have never seen a girl that I
like so well as Ruth Bradley. Do you remember what father said
about loving and marrying? It comes into my mind whenever I see
Ruth; but she has no sister."

"But we need not both marry," David replied, "that might part us,
and this will not. It is for always now."

"For always, David."

Two or three days later Jonathan said, as he started on an errand
to the village: "I shall stop at the Bradleys this evening, so you
must walk across and meet me there."

When David approached the house, a slender, girlish figure, with
her back towards him, was stooping over a bush of great crimson
roses, cautiously clipping a blossom here and there. At the
click of the gate-latch she started and turned towards him. Her
light gingham bonnet, falling back, disclosed a long oval face,
fair and delicate, sweet brown eyes, and brown hair laid smoothly
over the temples. A soft flush rose suddenly to her cheeks, and he
felt that his own were burning.

"Oh Jonathan!" she exclaimed, transferring the roses to her left
hand, and extending her right, as she came forward.

He was too accustomed to the name to recognize her mistake at once,
and the word "Ruth!" came naturally to his lips.

"I should know your brother David has come," she then said; "even
if I had not heard so. You look so bright. How glad I am!"

"Is he not here?" David asked.

"No; but there he is now, surely!" She turned towards the lane,
where Jonathan was dismounting. "Why, it is yourself over again,
Jonathan!"

As they approached, a glance passed between the twins, and a secret
transfer of the riding-whip to David set their identity right with
Ruth, whose manner toward the latter innocently became shy with all
its friendliness, while her frank, familiar speech was given to
Jonathan, as was fitting. But David also took the latter to
himself, and when they left, Ruth had apparently forgotten that
there was any difference in the length of their acquaintance.

On their way homewards David said: "Father was right. We must
marry, like others, and Ruth is the wife for us,--I mean for
you, Jonathan. Yes, we must learn to say MINE and YOURS,
after all, when we speak of her."

"Even she cannot separate us, it seems," Jonathan answered. "We
must give her some sign, and that will also be a sign for others.
It will seem strange to divide ourselves; we can never learn it
properly; rather let us not think of marriage."

"We cannot help thinking of it; she stands in mother's place now,
as we in father's."

Then both became silent and thoughtful. They felt that something
threatened to disturb what seemed to be the only possible life for
them, yet were unable to distinguish its features, and therefore
powerless to resist it. The same instinct which had been born of
their wonderful spiritual likeness told them that Ruth Bradley
already loved Jonathan: the duty was established, and they must
conform their lives to it. There was, however, this slight
difference between their natures--that David was generally the
first to utter the thought which came to the minds of both. So
when he said, "We shall learn what to do when the need comes," it
was a postponement of all foreboding. They drifted contentedly
towards the coming change.

The days went by, and their visits to Ruth Bradley were continued.
Sometimes Jonathan went alone, but they were usually together, and
the tie which united the three became dearer and sweeter as it was
more closely drawn. Ruth learned to distinguish between the two
when they were before her: at least she said so, and they were
willing to believe it. But she was hardly aware how nearly
alike was the happy warmth in her bosom produced by either pair of
dark gray eyes and the soft half-smile which played around either
mouth. To them she seemed to be drawn within the mystic circle
which separated them from others--she, alone; and they no longer
imagined a life in which she should not share.

Then the inevitable step was taken. Jonathan declared his love,
and was answered. Alas! he almost forgot David that late summer
evening, as they sat in the moonlight, and over and over again
assured each other how dear they had grown. He felt the trouble in
David's heart when they met.

"Ruth is ours, and I bring her kiss to you," he said, pressing his
lips to David's; but the arms flung around him trembled, and David
whispered, "Now the change begins."

"Oh, this cannot be our burden!" Jonathan cried, with all the
rapture still warm in his heart.

"If it is, it will be light, or heavy, or none at all, as we shall
bear it," David answered, with a smile of infinite tenderness.

For several days he allowed Jonathan to visit the Bradley farm
alone, saying that it must be so on Ruth's account. Her love, he
declared, must give her the fine instinct which only their mother
had ever possessed, and he must allow it time to be confirmed.
Jonathan, however, insisted that Ruth already possessed it; that
she was beginning to wonder at his absence, and to fear that she
would not be entirely welcome to the home which must always be
equally his.

David yielded at once.

"You must go alone," said Jonathan, "to satisfy yourself that she
knows us at last."

Ruth came forth from the house as he drew near. Her face beamed;
she laid her hands upon his shoulders and kissed him. "Now you
cannot doubt me, Ruth!" he said, gently.

"Doubt you, Jonathan!" she exclaimed with a fond reproach in her
eyes. "But you look troubled; is any thing the matter?"

"I was thinking of my brother," said David, in a low tone.

"Tell me what it is," she said, drawing him into the little arbor
of woodbine near the gate. They took seats side by side on the
rustic bench. "He thinks I may come between you: is it not that?"
she asked. Only one thing was clear to David's mind--that she
would surely speak more frankly and freely of him to the supposed
Jonathan than to his real self. This once he would permit the
illusion.

"Not more than must be," he answered. "He knew all from the very
beginning. But we have been like one person in two bodies, and any
change seems to divide us."

"I feel as you do," said Ruth. "I would never consent to be your
wife, if I could really divide you. I love you both too well for
that."

"Do you love me?" he asked, entirely forgetting his representative
part.

Again the reproachful look, which faded away as she met his eyes.
She fell upon his breast, and gave him kisses which were answered
with equal tenderness. Suddenly he covered his face with his
hands, and burst into a passion of tears.

"Jonathan! Oh Jonathan!" she cried, weeping with alarm and
sympathetic pain.

It was long before he could speak; but at last, turning away his
head, he faltered, "I am David!"

There was a long silence.

When he looked up she was sitting with her hands rigidly clasped in
her lap: her face was very pale.

"There it is, Ruth," he said; "we are one heart and one soul.
Could he love, and not I? You cannot decide between us, for one is
the other. If I had known you first, Jonathan would be now in my
place. What follows, then?"

"No marriage," she whispered.

"No!" he answered; "we brothers must learn to be two men instead of
one. You will partly take my place with Jonathan; I must live with
half my life, unless I can find, somewhere in the world, your other
half."

"I cannot part you, David!"

"Something stronger than you or me parts us, Ruth. If it were
death, we should bow to God's will: well, it can no more be got
away from than death or judgment. Say no more: the pattern of all
this was drawn long before we were born, and we cannot do any
thing but work it out."

He rose and stood before her. "Remember this, Ruth," he said; "it
is no blame in us to love each other. Jonathan will see the truth
in my face when we meet, and I speak for him also. You will not
see me again until your wedding-day, and then no more afterwards--
but, yes! ONCE, in some far-off time, when you shall know me to
be David, and still give me the kiss you gave to-day."

"Ah, after death!" she thought: "I have parted them forever." She
was about to rise, but fell upon the seat again, fainting. At the
same moment Jonathan appeared at David's side.

No word was said. They bore her forth and supported her between
them until the fresh breeze had restored her to consciousness. Her
first glance rested on the brother's hands, clasping; then, looking
from one to the other, she saw that the cheeks of both were wet.

"Now, leave me," she said, "but come to-morrow, Jonathan!" Even
then she turned from one to the other, with a painful, touching
uncertainty, and stretched out both hands to them in farewell.

How that poor twin heart struggled with itself is only known to
God. All human voices, and as they believed, also the Divine
Voice, commanded the division of their interwoven life. Submission
would have seemed easier, could they have taken up equal and
similar burdens; but David was unable to deny that his pack was
overweighted. For the first time, their thoughts began to diverge.

At last David said: "For mother's sake, Jonathan, as we promised.
She always called you HER child. And for Ruth's sake, and
father's last advice: they all tell me what I must do."

It was like the struggle between will and desire, in the same
nature, and none the less fierce or prolonged because the softer
quality foresaw its ultimate surrender. Long after he felt the
step to be inevitable, Jonathan sought to postpone it, but he was
borne by all combined influences nearer and nearer to the time.

And now the wedding-day came. David was to leave home the same
evening, after the family dinner under his father's roof. In the
morning he said to Jonathan: "I shall not write until I feel that
I have become other than now, but I shall always be here, in you,
as you will be in me, everywhere. Whenever you want me, I shall
know it; and I think I shall know when to return."

The hearts of all the people went out towards them as they stood
together in the little village church. Both were calm, but very
pale and abstracted in their expression, yet their marvellous
likeness was still unchanged. Ruth's eyes were cast down so they
could not be seen; she trembled visibly, and her voice was scarcely
audible when she spoke the vow. It was only known in the
neighborhood that David was going to make another journey. The
truth could hardly have been guessed by persons whose ideas follow
the narrow round of their own experiences; had it been, there would
probably have been more condemnation than sympathy. But in a vague
way the presence of some deeper element was felt--the falling
of a shadow, although the outstretched wing was unseen. Far above
them, and above the shadow, watched the Infinite Pity, which was
not denied to three hearts that day.

It was a long time, more than a year, and Ruth was lulling her
first child on her bosom, before a letter came from David. He had
wandered westwards, purchased some lands on the outer line of
settlement, and appeared to be leading a wild and lonely life. "I
know now," he wrote, "just how much there is to bear, and how to
bear it. Strange men come between us, but you are not far off when
I am alone on these plains. There is a place where I can always
meet you, and I know that you have found it,--under the big ash-
tree by the barn. I think I am nearly always there about sundown,
and on moonshiny nights, because we are then nearest together; and
I never sleep without leaving you half my blanket. When I first
begin to wake I always feel your breath, so we are never really
parted for long. I do not know that I can change much; it is not
easy; it is like making up your mind to have different colored eyes
and hair, and I can only get sunburnt and wear a full beard. But
we are hardly as unhappy as we feared to be; mother came the other
night, in a dream, and took us on her knees. Oh, come to me,
Jonathan, but for one day! No, you will not find me; I am going
across the Plains!"

And Jonathan and Ruth? They loved each other tenderly; no external
trouble visited them; their home was peaceful and pure; and
yet, every room and stairway and chair was haunted by a sorrowful
ghost. As a neighbor said after visiting them, "There seemed to be
something lost." Ruth saw how constantly and how unconsciously
Jonathan turned to see his own every feeling reflected in the
missing eyes; how his hand sought another, even while its fellow
pressed hers; how half-spoken words, day and night, died upon his
lips, because they could not reach the twin-ear. She knew not how
it came, but her own nature took upon itself the same habit. She
felt that she received a less measure of love than she gave--not
from Jonathan, in whose whole, warm, transparent heart no other
woman had ever looked, but something of her own passed beyond him
and never returned. To both their life was like one of those
conjurer's cups, seemingly filled with red wine, which is held from
the lips by the false crystal hollow.

Neither spoke of this: neither dared to speak. The years dragged
out their slow length, with rare and brief messages from David.
Three children were in the house, and still peace and plenty laid
their signs upon its lintels. But at last Ruth, who had been
growing thinner and paler ever since the birth of her first boy,
became seriously ill. Consumption was hers by inheritance, and it
now manifested itself in a form which too surely foretold the
result. After the physician had gone, leaving his fatal verdict
behind him, she called to Jonathan, who, bewildered by his grief,
sank down on his knees at her bedside and sobbed upon her breast.

"Don't grieve," she said; "this is my share of the burden. If I
have taken too much from you and David, now comes the atonement.
Many things have grown clear to me. David was right when he said
that there was no blame. But my time is even less than the doctor
thinks: where is David? Can you not bid him come?"

"I can only call him with my heart," he answered. "And will he
hear me now, after nearly seven years?"

"Call, then!" she eagerly cried. "Call with all the strength of
your love for him and for me, and I believe he will hear you!"

The sun was just setting. Jonathan went to the great ash-tree,
behind the barn, fell upon his knees, and covered his face, and the
sense of an exceeding bitter cry filled his heart. All the
suppressed and baffled longing, the want, the hunger, the
unremitting pain of years, came upon him and were crowded into the
single prayer, "Come, David, or I die!" Before the twilight faded,
while he was still kneeling, an arm came upon his shoulder, and the
faint touch of another cheek upon his own. It was hardly for the
space of a thought, but he knew the sign.

"David will come!" he said to Ruth.

From that day all was changed. The cloud of coming death which
hung over the house was transmuted into fleecy gold. All the lost
life came back to Jonathan's face, all the unrestful sweetness of
Ruth's brightened into a serene beatitude. Months had passed since
David had been heard from; they knew not how to reach him
without many delays; yet neither dreamed of doubting his coming.

Two weeks passed, three, and there was neither word nor sign.
Jonathan and Ruth thought, "He is near," and one day a singular
unrest fell upon the former. Ruth saw it, but said nothing until
night came, when she sent Jonathan from her bedside with the words,
"Go and meet him?"

An hour afterwards she heard double steps on the stone walk in
front of the house. They came slowly to the door; it opened; she
heard them along the hall and ascending the stairs; then the
chamber-lamp showed her the two faces, bright with a single,
unutterable joy.

One brother paused at the foot of the bed; the other drew near and
bent over her. She clasped her thin hands around his neck, kissed
him fondly, and cried, "Dear, dear David!"

"Dear Ruth," he said, "I came as soon as I could. I was far away,
among wild mountains, when I felt that Jonathan was calling me. I
knew that I must return, never to leave you more, and there was
still a little work to finish. Now we shall all live again!"

"Yes," said Jonathan, coming to her other side, "try to live, Ruth!"

Her voice came clear, strong, and full of authority. "I DO live,
as never before. I shall take all my life with me when I go to
wait for one soul, as I shall find it there! Our love unites, not
divides, from this hour!"

The few weeks still left to her were a season of almost
superhuman peace. She faded slowly and painlessly, taking the
equal love of the twin-hearts, and giving an equal tenderness and
gratitude. Then first she saw the mysterious need which united
them, the fulness and joy wherewith each completed himself in the
other. All the imperfect past was enlightened, and the end, even
that now so near, was very good.

Every afternoon they carried her down to a cushioned chair on the
veranda, where she could enjoy the quiet of the sunny landscape,
the presence of the brothers seated at her feet, and the sports of
her children on the grass. Thus, one day, while David and Jonathan
held her hands and waited for her to wake from a happy sleep, she
went before them, and, ere they guessed the truth, she was waiting
for their one soul in the undiscovered land.

And Jonathan's children, now growing into manhood and girlhood,
also call David "father." The marks left by their divided lives
have long since vanished from their faces; the middle-aged men,
whose hairs are turning gray, still walk hand in hand, still sleep
upon the same pillow, still have their common wardrobe, as when
they were boys. They talk of "our Ruth" with no sadness, for they
believe that death will make them one, when, at the same moment, he
summons both. And we who know them, to whom they have confided the
touching mystery of their nature, believe so too.

****

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