For The Children To The Last

For the Children to the Last.

  During the prevalence of the plague in Italy a poor woman  living in the village of Careggi, the wife of a laborer and the mother of two Iittle boys, felt herself attacked by the fatal disease.  It was during the absence of her husband, who worked at a distance and only returned on the Saturday night. Frightened by the example of a neighboring family, which had been, one after another, entirely sweft off, and moved by the fondest love for her children, she determined not to communicate the disease to them, and formed the heroic resolution of leaving her home and going elsewhere to die. Having locked in a room and sacrificed to their safety even the last sole comfort of a parting embrace, she ran down-stairs carrying with her the sheets and coverlet, that she might leave no means of contagion.  She then shut the door and went away, but the eldest of the children, hearing the door shut, went to the window and cried out '"Good-by mother," in a voice so tender that she turned and stopped. "Good-by mother" repeated the youngest child, Stretching its Iittle head out of the window.  Thus the afflicted mother was compelled for a time to endure the dreadful conflict between the yearning which called her  back and the pity and love which urged her on. At length the latter conquered and amid a flood of tears, she reached the house of those who were to bury her. To them she recommended her husband and children and in two days had ceased to exist.