Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-05-16

THE LONELY BURIAL.
by MRS. CAROLINE NJ. SAWYER.
Continucd.7

"But we soon began to feel it necessary to
adopt some settled plan of living, SO as to make
our little means hold out as long as possible
We accordingly hired two small rooms at a rea-
sonable rent, and were soon settled down for the
winter. Constantly endeavoring to buoy up her.
self and us with the hope of seeing and hearing
from E lward and Maurice in the spring, Rose
was our greatest comfort in every responding
hour. AS she was naturally of a very ingenious
turn, she contrVed to earn little and make our
funds hold out the longer. She made various
elegant little fancy articles, which she disposed
of to good advantage, at foreign repository for
such articles in Broadway and so much were
they pleased with her work, that they gave her
constant employment, and at a very tolerable
price; so that we had to draw much less on our
little store of money than you would have believ-
ed possible
"But, unaccustomed to the close confinement
and constant employment of the needle, to which
she now resolutely subjected herself, the health
of poor Rose began to fail. Nevertheless, she
still persisted in her arduous sedentary labors,
constantly affirming that she felt no i'll effects
from it, though her slight appetite, and faded
checks, but too plainly contradcted her asser-
tions. The youngest child of our poor daugh-
ter who was buried in the sea, began also to
show signs of severe ilIness. Day after day the
delicate boy became more and more dropping,
until he could no longer hold up his head We
applied to physician who lived near us, and he
for time attended him; but in spite of his ex-
ertions, and our own unwearied care, he con-
stantly grew worse and worse, and before Febru-
airy was at an end, he was pronounced beyond
the hope Of cure.
"Anxiety of mind, and her severe personal Ia
bors, were meanwhile operating fatally against
our dear Rose and about the middle of March,
she was obliged to relinquish all employment,
and take to her bed We again summoned the
physician, but so far from benehting, his pre-
scrptons seemed rather to injure her. AT length
her disease seemed to assume new form, and
she became gradually afflicted as you see her
now, with painful spasmodic affection. Her
limbs on one side became almost wholly useless.
Ifshe attempted to walk, they would suddenly
fail beneath her, and if she made an effort to
sew, her needle would fall from her hand and her
arm shake as if in commissions. Finding that
all the efforts of the physician proved entirely I'M
ayailing, and our rapidly sinking funds warning
us that we could not much longer meet his heavy
charges-for he demanded and received twelve
shilings for every visit he made her, and an
equal sum almost every week for the different
preparations with which he furnished us-we f.
nay dismissed him.
AS it was absolutely necessary to retrench
our expenses in every possible way, on the first
Of April we paid our months rent, and removed
to this tenement, which we obtained at less than
half the price of the other But we were hard
ly settled in our new abode, when our little one
seemed rapidly sinking, and in one week more
he died
"My husband, always somewhat inclined to
dependency of disposition, had under the infu-
ence Of our adverse circumstances, and the I'M
accountable absence of our son, long been be-
coming more so. A melancholy gloom seemed
now constantly brooding over his mind which
the death of our little grandchd deepened into
despair We had kept ourselves quietly aloof
from our neighbors, who were mostly of low
and noisy character, and having no friends or
acauaintances to sympathise with and assist us in
our bereavement, ii;y husband absolutely refused
his permission, when proposed that we should
call in one of our neighbors to assist in the per-
Torrance Of the last sad duties to our child,
which shrunk from undertaking alone.
, ono he exclaimed, I'VE have been forsaken
in land of strangers by our own child, and an
other who was to have been our child, and stran-
gers shall not look US in the face and say, you
are under obligations to US. No, We will bury
our dead, as we have watched him through his
sickness, and seen him die-alone. Say no
more on the subject, but make such preparations
as our poverty will allow, and let us carry our
child to his grave
" To you, who have never known the forlorn-
ness and desolation which come over his heart
who feels that he has been forsaken in a land
of strangers by his own child, this command Of
my husband may appear harsh and unfeeling =
but to me, who was acquainted with all the
windings of his nature, it wore different aspect
i felt that it was the echo of breaking heart,
and turning away my face to conceal my anguish
from one who had enough of his own to bear, |
acquiesced without dissenting word, while my
husband seated himself as you see him now, APP
parently forgetful of every thing around him.
Rose, who had slept while the last sad
change was passing over our child was still slee-
ping, and as was anxious to spare her the sight
of every thing agitating, fastened to perform
my last trying duties before she should awake
Softly and without tear, lifted the motionles
and still beautiful child from its bed and bearing
it to table in a remote corner Of our only room
commenced my melancholy task tenderl,
closed the dim and rayess eyes carefully
Strengthened the emaciated limbs; and then ar
ranged its soft and glossy rngets around it
81 snowy brow, with heavy heart enveoped its ic
form in little robe which it had worn in it
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