Behind him he left empty hearts that
ached, and great bare rooms that seemed always to be echoing sighs and
sobs. And then, one day, such a few years after, the young wife went to
find her baby, and left the man all alone with the heart that ached and
the great bare rooms that echoed sighs and sobs.
"Perhaps it was this--the bareness of the rooms--that made the man turn
to his boyish passion for collecting things. He wanted to fill those
rooms full, full!--so that the sighs and sobs could not be heard; and he
wanted to fill his heart, too, with something that would still the ache.
And he tried. Already he had his boyish treasures, and these he lined up
in brave array, but his rooms still echoed, and his heart still ached;
so he built more shelves and bought more cabinets, and set himself to
filling them, hoping at the same time that he might fill all that dreary
waste of hours outside of business--hours which once had been all too
short to devote to the young wife and the baby boy.
"One by one the years passed, and one by one the shelves and the
cabinets were filled. The man fancied, sometimes, that he had succeeded;
but in his heart of hearts he knew that the ache was merely dulled, and
that darkness had only to come to set the rooms once more to echoing
the sighs and sobs. And then--but perhaps you are tired of the story,
Billy.
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