The Old Worcester Jug by Eglanton Thorne

JOHN GRIFFIN lay with closed eyes, breathing heavily, when little Maggie re-entered the sick room. It seemed to the child's anxious gaze that he was looking far worse than when she had left him. She stole to his side, and laid her little hand tenderly on his. Mrs. Griffin sat on the other side of the bed, holding his right hand. She was quite calm; but her face was very sad as she watched the last moments of him whose life had been linked to hers for more than thirty years.

The child's light touch seemed to awake the old man to consciousness, for he opened his eyes, and casting a glance round the room, murmured, "My little maid; where is my little maid?"

"I'm here, grandfather, close beside you," said Maggie, leaning forward to kiss him.

Old Griffin looked up at her with a bright smile of recognition. "It is you," he said, feebly; "I'm so glad you've come."

Then, making a great effort, he said, as clearly as his failing breath would permit, "Maggie, I've told all-all about the Worcester jug. The colonel knows; you belong to him now. You must be a good girl, and do as he tells you."

"I'll try to be good, grandfather," said the child, with quivering lips.

"You've always been a good little maid to me," he said. "And you'll not forget the old woman, Maggie. It'll be hard for her to be left all alone. And, Maggie, I've tried to undo all the wrong I have done. I've repented of my sins. Do you think the Lord will forgive me? Will He open the gate for me?"

"The gate is open," said little Maggie, scarce knowing what she said; "wide, wide open."

"Say the words again," he murmured.

"What words? " she asked, wonderingly. Then guessing his meaning, she repeated:

"There was no other good enough / To pay the price of sin, / He only could unlock the gate / Of heaven and let us in."

A faint smile stole over the face of the dying man. "Yes," he murmured, "He has paid the price. He died for me."

Presently a slight movement of the hand she held told his wife that he wished to speak to her. She bent over him to catch the low words.

"Old wife, I'm thinking that I shall find our little Polly there. And you'll come by-and-by. It won't be very long."

"No, it won't be long," she responded, brokenly.

He said no more; there was silence in the room, save for the sound of his heavy, painful breathing. At last that grew fainter, and he passed into a doze.

Little Maggie must have slept too, as she sat beside him, for it seemed to her as if but a few minutes had passed, when an hour later she was roused by the sound of Mrs. Griffin's bitter sobs. Then she saw Colonel Platten standing near her.

"Come with me, my dear," he said, as he tried to draw her away; but she resisted his touch.

"Don't! " she cried. "I must stay with grandfather. I cannot leave him now."

"My child, he has left you," said the colonel, tenderly. "His spirit has passed from earth. You must let me be your grandfather now."