"Oh! Willy, my boy! my boy!" she exclaimed, in tones of anguish that made the heart shudder. And she crouched down on the floor, the moment she reached the bed whereon he lay, and pressed her lips--oh, so tenderly and lovingly!--to his. "Dear mother! Sweet mother! Best of mothers!" He even smiled as he said this; and, into the face now bent over him, looked up with glances of unutterable fondness. "Oh, Willy! Willy! Willy! my son, my son!" And again her lips were laid closely to his. Mr. Hammond now interfered, and endeavored to remove his wife, fearing for the consequence upon his son. "Don't, father!" said Willy; "let her remain. I am not excited nor disturbed. I am glad that she is here, now. It will be best for us both." "You must not excite him, dear," said Mr. Hammond--"he is very weak." "I'll not excite him," answered the mother. "I'll not speak a word. There, love"--and she laid her fingers softly upon the lips of her son--"don't speak a single word." For only a few moments did she sit with the quiet formality of a nurse, who feels how much depends on the repose of her patient. Then she began weeping, moaning, and wringing her hands. "Mother!" The feeble voice of Willy stilled, instantly, the tempest of feeling. "Mother, kiss me!" She bent down and kissed him. "Are you there, mother?" His eyes moved about, with a straining motion. "Yes, love, here I am." "I don't see you, mother. It's getting so dark. Oh, mother! mother!" he shouted suddenly, starting up and throwing himself forward upon her bosom--"save me! save me!" How quickly did the mother clasp her arms around him--how eagerly did she strain him to her bosom! The doctor, fearing the worst consequences, now came forward, and endeavored to release the arms of Mrs. Hammond, but she resisted every attempt to do so. "I will save you, my son," she murmured in the ear of the young man. "Your mother will protect you. Oh! if you had never left her side, nothing on earth could have done you harm." "He is dead!" I heard the doctor whisper; and a thrill of horror went through me. The words reached the ears of Mr. Hammond, and his groan was one of almost mortal agony. "Who says he is dead?" came sharply from the lips of the mother, as she pressed the form of her child back upon the bed from which he had sprung to her arms, and looked wildly upon his face. One long scream of horror told of her convictions, and she fell, lifeless, across the body of her dead son! All in the room believed that Mrs. Hammond had only fainted. But the doctor's perplexed, troubled countenance, as he ordered her carried into another apartment, and the ghastliness of her face when it was upturned to the light, suggested to every one what proved to be true. Even to her obscured perceptions, the consciousness that her son was dead came with a terrible vividness--so terrible, that it extinguished her life.