CHAPTER XXIII
THE SUNNY SLOPE
After Connie's visit, when she had returned to Chicago to finishlearning how to write her knowledge, David and Carol with little Juliasettled down in the cottage among the pines, and the winter came andthe mountains were huge white monuments over the last summer that haddied. Later in the winter a nurse came in to take charge of the littlefamily, and although Carol was afraid of her, she obeyed with childishconfidence whenever the nurse gave directions.
"I feel fine to-day," David said to her one morning. "I think whenspring comes I shall be stronger again. It is a good thing to bealive."
He glanced through the window and looked at Carol, buttoning Julia'sgaiters for the fifth time that morning.
"It is a pretty nice world to most of us," said the nurse.
"We each have a world of our own, I guess. Mine is Carol and Julianow. I have no grouch at life, and I register no complaint againstcircumstances, but I should be glad to live in my little world a long,long time."
One morning when spring had come, when the white monuments melted anddrifted away with the clouds, and when the shadowy canyons and theyellow rocky peaks stood out bare and bright, David called her to him.
"Look," he said, "the same old sunny slope. We have been climbing itfour years now, a long climb, sometimes pretty rough and rugged foryou."
"It was not, David,--never," she protested quickly. "It was always aclear bright path. And we've been finding things to laugh at all theway."
He pulled her into his arm beside him on the bed. "We are going to thetop of the sunny slope together. Look at the mountain there. We aregoing up one of those sunny ridges, and sometime, after a while, wewill stand at the top, right on the summit, with the sky above and thevalleys below."
She nodded her head, smiling at him bravely.
"I think it is probably very near to Heaven," he said slowly, in adreamy voice. "I think it must be. It is so intensely bright,--seehow it cuts into the blue. Yes, it must be right at the gates ofHeaven. We will stand right there together, won't we?"
"David," she whispered.
"This is what I want to say. After that, there will be another way foryou to go, on the other side. Look at the mountains, dear. See, thereare other peaks beyond, with alternating slopes of sunshine and canyonsof shadow. It is much easier to stick to the sunny slopes when thereare two together. It is very easy to stagger off into the shadows,when one has to travel alone. But, Carol, don't you go into theshadows. I want to think always that you are staying in the sunshine,on the slopes, where it is bright, where Julia can laugh and play,where you can sing and listen to the birds. Stick to the sunny slopes,dear, even when you are climbing alone."
Carol nodded her head in affirmation, though her face was hidden.
"I will, David. I will run right out of the shadows and find the sunnyslopes."
"And do not try to live by, 'what would David like?' Be happy, dear.Follow the sunshine. I think it guides us truly, for a pure kind heartcan not mistake fleeting gaiety for lasting joys like you and I havehad. So wherever your journey of joy may take you, follow it and beassured that I am smiling at you in the sunshine."
Carol stayed with him after that, sitting very quietly, speakingsoftly, in the subdued way that had developed from her youthfulbuoyance, always quick to smile reassuringly and adoringly when helooked at her, always ready to look hopefully to the sunny slopes whenhis finger pointed.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE END
In a low hammock beneath the maples Carol lay, pale and slender,dressed in a soft gown of creamy white, with a pink rose at her belt.Through an open window she could see her father at his desk up-stairs.Often he came to the window, waving a friendly greeting that told howglad he was to have her in the family home again. And she could seeAunt Grace in the kitchen, energetically whipping cream for the applepie for dinner--"Carol always did love apple pie with whipped cream."Julia was digging a canal through the flower bed a dozen steps away.And close at her side sat Lark, the sweet, old, precious twin, whocould not attend to the farm a single minute now that Carol was at homeonce more.
Carol's hands were clasped under her head, and she was staring upthrough the trees at the clear blue sky, flecked like a sea with bitsof foam.
"Mother," cried Julia, running to the hammock and sweeping wildly atthe sky with a knife she was using for a spade, "I looked right up intoHeaven and I saw my daddy, and he did not cough a bit. He smiled at meand said, 'Hello, little sweetheart. Take good care of Mother.'"
Carol kissed her, softly, regardless of the streaks of earth upon herchubby face.
"Mother," puzzled Julia, "what is it to be died? I can't think it.And I lie down and I can't do it. What is it to be died?"
"Death, Julia, you mean death. I think, dear, it is life,--life thatis all made straight; life where one can work and never be laid asidefor illness; life where one can love, and fear no separation; lifewhere one can do the big things he yearned to do, and be the big man heyearned to be with no hindrance of little petty things. I think thatdeath is life, the happy life."
Julia, satisfied, returned to her canal, and Lark, with throbbing pity,patted Carol's arm.
"Do you know, Larkie, I think that death is life on the top of a sunnyslope, clear up on the peak where it touches the sky. Such a big sunnyslope that the canyons of shadow are miles and miles away, out of sightentirely. I believe that David is living right along on the top of asunny slope."
Her father stepped to the window and tapped on the pane, waving down tothem. "I can't keep away from this window," he called. "Whenever youtwins get together I think I have to watch you just as I used to whenyou were mobbing the parsonage."
The twins laughed, and when he went back to his desk they turned toeach other with eyes that plainly said, "Isn't he the grandest fatherthat ever lived?"
Then Carol folded her hands behind her head again and looked dreamilyup through the leafy maples, seeing the broad mesa stretching off milesaway to the mountains, where the dark canyons underlined the sunnyslopes.
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