Willy Burke, or, The Irish orphan in America - Digital Repository ...

16 '..
WILLY
BURKE; OR,
whisper in her ear— " I think daddy 's betther the day ;
don't you see how red his cheeks are ?" A burst of tears
was the only answer, for Biddy well knew that death was
rapidly doing his work, and that the glow on the ema-
ciated face was but the flush of internal disease.
It chanced that the ship, though leaving her port under
auspices so favourable, was much retarded in her progress
by strong western gales ; so that, though she had no very
great storm to encounter, yet the voyage was a rough and
tedious one. For seven long weeks was she kept buffeting
about on the wide ocean, without making any considerable
progress, and eight weeks had passed since " the
last glimpse of Erin" had disappeared from the eyes of
the emigrants, when one morning, just as the shades of
night were vanishing from sky and sea, Biddy Burke
awoke her younger children from their sleep, and made a
sign for them to rise— she could not speak. Hastily
donning their little garments, the wondering children
followed their mother—it was but a few paces— to their
father's bed, where they found their two brothers kneeling,
with their faces hid between their hands. A scream
burst forth from the little ones as they looked at the bed,
for their father lay still, as though he were dead, and the
ghastly paleness of his face was fearful to see. He was
not dead, however, though his hour was just then come,
and the voice of his children woke him from his lethargic
slumber. " Kneel down, all of ye", he said, in a feeble
voice, " till I give ye my blessin' ; God help ye, poor children,
I havn't much else to lave ye !" When the whole
sorrowful group knelt before him, the mother as well as
the children, the dying man raised his clas; ed hands to
heaven, and breathed an inward prayer that the God of