Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1851-09-19
THE TIME OF THE FALLING snow,
BY GEORGE LIPPARD,

ne tears come into my eyes when the snow
tails. For 1t was in the time of the fallInr snow
that she died. A dreary morning, cold and des
o!ate, with sieet patterlng on the window pane
ana snow upon the frozen ground The tower
OF the church, which you could see from the
window OF the dGaih-chamber, rose dreariIy anc
alone into a eaden sky. And | can see her now
! by The light which came but dimly through the
haIt-drawn curtains. That face, stricken by
death, those eyes, raised yearningly t6sleaven
and filled with Light that shone upon them from
the Better World. those cold, thin hands, CLASH
! ed over the shrunken breast--I can see her now
even as she looked in the moment before she di.
ed. ., if You had all the power Of expression
that language, in its sublimest flights affords
you could not paint the agony and the rapture OF
that dying face. She knew us all--kDew that
she was the last of many whom we had given to
the grave--she called US BY name, and told us
how hard 1t was 10 part from us, and in the same
breath ca quick, gasping breath, for she was
struggling between Time and Eternity,) she told
Us now good 1t was to go home. We watched
her as she died. One moment her ewes were all
Idght-the next they were filmy and cold. And
| can remember now how went forth from that
dealh-room, leaving her upon her death~bed even
as the life had Just passed from her lips. How
III feel
the sIect upon my face, and drink of the winter
air with delight. How went to work, and amid
the care and clamor of work endeavored to
drown the thoughts Of her who all the while Law
cold and beautiful In my home, attired for coffin
and grave yard, her thin, white bands folded on
her shroud. And can remember how | came
home az night, and went into my room and wrote
still chershlng a latent thought that she was
not dead, but only waiting for me in the next
room-Waltng for me to come and read to her
what had written. And when had Urttcn--
remember 1t yeti rose up and took the man
uscrlpt In my hand, and placed that hand upon
the door which led into the next room--her room
| had forgotten that she was dead 1t had been
my custom to read to her what ! had written
and had unconsciousy fallen into the old ha6-
II. My hand was upon the door--then, and not
TIL then, did the truth rush on me- that she was
not sitting in her chair awaiting me, but that She
was laid upon her bed, with her dead hands m
on her dead bosom. That she was dead The
thought say, rushed upon me, it crushed me
back against the wall like blow from a strong
ARMAND fora long time held me there--choked
and gasping, without the power to frame word.
And can remember how we took her forth.
OH that last day of the year, when the sun was
out and the snow glistened in his beams, and
bue SKY was over the Wlntry earth--hoW we
took her forth and laid her in the grave, amid
the graves of her people, and heard the rafting
OF the frozen clods upon her coffin lid.
And also do remember how for DAYS and
weeks and months after she was gone. Il can
not say dead) | would come home at evening.
and expect "a opened the door, to find her there,
as of old. And how, when | opened the door
and saw her place vacant, the truth would rush
upon me and crush me afresh--ust as though
she mad only died a moment before.
This is why the tears come into my eyes
when the snow falls
And when | sit in my room and look out up
on the Ieaden sky and new fallen snow, see her
dying face again And turning from the scene
without, look within. | see the book in which
She wrote her name the day before she died.
seen the picture which she with her own hands
fixed against the WALL see the door which
opens into the next room, and through its panels
| can see her sitting there-waiting for me to
come and read to her.
But for all this | feel know-that she is
moi dead.
Forl can see her, young and beautiful sitting
by calm waters in tne other land and in her hands
she holds child whose soul has lust escaped
from clay to God.
And know that they are there objectionable
sister who died in winter and the child who died
in autumn. And know that shall meet them
-y0ndor