Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1851-06-20
a REArTIFuL LETTER.

The following most touching fragment of
q letter from a dying wife to her husband,
was found by him, ONE months after her
death, between the leaves of a religious vol
ume which she was very fond Of perusing.-I
The letter, which was literally dim with tear
marks, was written long before the husband
was aware that the grasp Of fatal disease
had fastened upon the lovely form of his wife
who died at the early age Of nineteen:
1When this shall reach your eye, dear
c., some day when you are turning over
the relics Of the past, | shall have passed a.
way forever, and the cold white stone will be
keeping its lonely watch over the lips you
have so ofened pressed, and the sod will be
growing green that shall hide forever from
your sight the dust Of one who has SO often
nestled close to your warm heart For many
long and sleepless nights, when all beside my
thoughts were at rest, / have wrestled with
the consciousness Of approaching death, until
at last ithas forced itself upon my mind and
although to you and to others it might now
seem but the nervous imaginations of a girl,
yet dear G., it is Many weary hours
have / passed In the endeavors to reconcile
myself to leaving you, whom love so well,
and this bright world ofsunshine and beauty;
and hard indeed is it to struggle on silently
and alone with the u = conviction that | am
about TO leave all forever, and go down a.
lone into the dark valleyl "But l know on
whom | have trusted" and leaning upon his
arm Il fear no evil" Don't blame me foi
keeping even all this from you. How could
l subject you, of all others, to such sorrow al
1 feel at parting, when time will soon make
it apparent to youl
Il could have wished to live, if only to b.
at you side when your time shall come, anC
~piIlowing your head upon my breast, wipC
the death-damps from your brow, and ushel
your departing spirit into its Makers pres
ence, embalmed in woman's hottest prayers
But It Is not to beso-and | submit. Your
is the privilege of.watching, through long AM
dreary nights, for the spirits final fight, an
Of transferring my sinking head from you
breast to my Saviour's bosom. And yo1
shah share my last thought the last fain
pressure of the hand, and the last feeble ks
shall be yours and even when flesh an
heart shall have failed me, my eye shall re,
on yours until glazed by death; and our spin
its shall hold one last fond communion, unit
gently fading from view-the last of earth
you shall mingle with the first bright glimI
ses of the unfading g%loriesJ ofthat better worl
where paintings are unknown. Well do
know the spot, dear c. where you vi
lay me. Often have we stood by the plac
and as we watched the mellow sunset as
glanced in quivering flashes thro' the leave
and Furnished the grassy mounds aroun
us with stripes of Furnished gold, each pc
haps has thought that some one of us woul
come alone, and whichever it might be, yoa
name would be on the stone. But we love
the spot; and / know you'll love it none Il
less when you see the same quiet sunlig
linger and play among the grass that gro
over your MaFy's grave. know you will
often alone, when l am laid there, and n
spirit will be with you then, and whisr
through the waving branches, II am not 70
but gone 6goreP