Читать книгу The Daughter of a Soldier: A Colleen of South Ireland онлайн

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"Can't say I noticed," said Dominic; "and if whatever is the matter with him is years away, why should we fret, Maureen?"

"Oh, oh," Maureen began to sob.

Dominic was a most affectionate boy. He swept his strong arms now round his little cousin's neck and kissed her many times.

"You think too much—you feel too much," he said. "Remember that half their time doctors are wrong. That which old Haggarty says may never happen."

Maureen's soft, velvety eyes looked him full in the face.

"Don't you know what he meant?" she asked.

"Can't say I do; but for my part I don't believe in people who say that something—I suppose it is something ghastly—may happen years ahead."

"Or to-day or to-morrow," repeated Maureen. "Dominic, hold my hand very, very tight. You're older than me a good bit, but I think my heart is older than yours. I must explain to you. Whenever that comes which the doctor means——"

"Yes," said the boy, turning a little pale.

"It means," continued Maureen, "death! No more Uncle Patrick walking up and down the stairs, no more Uncle Patrick preaching his beautiful sermons to us in the church, no more Uncle Patrick taking care of the garden and the fruit and the vegetables. He'll have gone up like the lark did a short time ago; he'll leave his little earthly nest and go up, up, up!"