The Columbian fountain., 1846-09-14
A MOTHER AT HER CHILD'S
'aHE GRAVE.

We were leaning against gateway; and
contemplating all those silent teachings around
us, when the sound ofmany foot falls aroused
us from the reverie. We looked up and a
small funeral procession was close at hand,
directing its course towards the place where
we stood, which was, indeed, the entrance to
a burying ground. .sa HsL-J 81
-Four lads were bearing along little coffin,
behind which followed the parents Of the de-
ceased, and few relatives. SIT is better 10
60 to the house Of meurning," says the Scrip
ture; but as we had no invitation thlther, we
loined the little train, and went into the city OF
the dead. The procession paused and gather
ed around a small grave, and the customary
assistants took the coffin and lowered it into
the "house appointed unto ALL" No Office was
said--no clergyman was at hand TO apply the
seal Of instruction to the softened heart, TO lead
away the thoughts of the mourners from the
object before them 10 the contemplation Of the
probable abode of the better world, of the better
portion OF what they had loved, or TO make
each of the parents say. with the monarch
mourner Of old, shall 60 unto him. but he
shall not come again unto me-" .a
When the lines and other apparatus were
removed from the grave, the bereaved parents
stepped forward to look down into the narrow
place, and take last farewell of their little one.
The hardened features OF the father were dis
torted bv anguish, and he applied his hand
kerchief to his eyes, which seemed unused to
tears The mother was then led forward.
There was less distortion on her features. She
grieved much, but she wept, and those tears
were blessings.
She leaned over the edge of the grave, and
looked far down upon the unadorned coffin OF
her child. We could see when her eye first
met it, A sensation of sudden pain was evl-
dent for moment n her face, but il passed
away, and mothers grief and mothers
tears were INDUCED. The friend who had con-
Quoted her thitber, and sustained her there,
then quietly withdrew her from the position
but just as she was turning away, we saw
sudden disturbance of her features and heard
her scream. The husband was at once at her
side. Pointing down into the grave, she said
with shudder, "there is water there-cold
Water."d a.N
The little train walked slowly away from
the grave yard. The mourners were too poor
and were unable TO induce larger procession,
and that procession was too small TO excite
much attention. We looked down into the
grave, and some water had indeed collected
therein. and being displaced by the coffin, il
seemed IN larger quantities than It really was.
The poor mother had, Of necessity, yielded TO
the death Of her child. In little time she had
consented TO bury the dead out of her sight,
and she had wound up her feelings 10 endure,
with only customary expressions of sorrow,
the deprivation, and the last scene that shut
forever from her sight the child she had borne
and nurtured.-She had schooled herself TO
contemplation OF the darkness of the grave, |
and the earthly covering Of her child, but she
was not prepared for the unseemliness Of the
water. sensation of colGness, worse than
that ef the grave, came over her, and, for |
moment, she felt as if her little one was to be !
sensible, amid its decay, to the discomforis of
a watery grave. Let none smile at this ap-
prehension. Another, who has lost her child,
will not.
The evening sun poured its mellow beams
upon the heap Of earth beside the grave, and
the particles of moisture that yet hung upon
the clods, glistened with prisma'ic lustre, as