Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

RHYS LEWIS. 191
past seven no'n' ! Supposing Bob were burnt to death, what
should I do ? Had the fire not touched him, how glad I should
be ! But if it had reached his face— what a pity I Fancy
his having lost an eye— how ugly he would look ! O, the
thoughts that ran through my brain as I devoured the distance
between me and a full knowledge of all ! Very speedily I got
within sight of the house, and found Bob had come home.
But how ? In a trolly filled with straw, supported by two men,
one on either hand of him. I was at his side in an instant. I
heard him groan, as they were carrying him uptairs. Mother
was deathly pale, but perfectly calm ; Bob, black as the coal,
and charred to a cinder, lay quite still. His bright and
intelligent eyes had been burnt clean out of his head ; and yet
he was alive. I would not have known him from all the people
in the world. The works' surgeon. Dr. Bennett, who was in
the room, shook his head as if there were no hope. I envied
him the great tear I saw stealing down his cheek, because, for
once, I could not cry. Trouble is sometimes so sharp and
severe that our usual tokens of it refuse their services from
very diffidence. So was it with mother and me at this juncture.
"We could not weep. Someone, I forget who, having given him
a draught of water. Bob appeared to revive, and we heard him
distinctly say: —
"Mother! "
" Can you see a little, my son?" asked mother on approach-
ing him.
She did not know that he had lost both eyes.
*' Yes, mother," he replied. "The light has come at last.'
A second or two later he added, in English, — " Doctor, it is
broad daylight."
Next minute Bob had left behind him all the doubt and the
darkness to others and to me.