The Sierra citizen., 1855-01-20
Written for the Sierra Citizen.
The Mement0.
BY LEILA.

BY LELlA.
Many, many years ago, while still a
schoolgirl at the Seminary Of S, I formed
one Of those real friendships that last for
life, and over which, even death to the
survivor has no control, allowing no 9TH
er to fill the vacancy in the affections. /
have ever been passionate admirer Of
the beautiful and Maggie D, was beauti-
full as the inspiration of poets dream.
The fire of genius kindled in her deep
blue eye, and her lightest word seemed
poesy itself. She was indeed child of
song. She was as sensitive as the mimo-
sa, yet generous, noble, selfsacrifcing. I
felt that she was not one of US. She
seemed half angel, even then,
Too beautiful for earth
Too pure for aught but Heaven;
and in my enthusiasm, / clung to her with
a tenderness and tenacity that almost ap-
preached worship. There was something
so ethereal, so spiritual about her, that she
seemed the personifcation of some dream
of romance, rather than breathing
reality.
It was the close of session which was to
be vacation for some, while others were
to leave to return no more. / was one of
the former, while she was one of the latter
number. Souvenirs and menlentos were
exchanged, and as I placed some little to-
ken in her hand, slight shudder passed
over her delicate frame. She pressed her
lips to my brow, and glided to her room.
She returned in moment, and placed a
packet in my hand. With girlish curiosi-
ty eagerly commenced breaking the seal,
when with burst of grief she murmured,
"Notnow, dear Lilly, wait till am gone"
yielded to her wish, laid the precious
packet aside, and throwing my arms
around her, mingled my tears with those l
could not stay. And thus we remained
until they came to bear her home, and then
she sobbed as tho her heart would break.
Little did 1 think, dear Maggie, that long
lingering look would be the last you would
ever bestow on me. l gazed after her
until the carriage was lost to sight, and
then fed to our little room where we had
passed SO many harpy days together ours
no longer, but mine alone! Then, for the
first time, the full force of that desolate
word rushed over me, and I wept long and
bitterly over her parting gift. 1t was an
exquisite little drawing-a Tyre. with one
broken string a luxuriant vine clung low
ingly to the base, vainly striving to twine
itself around the strings to conceal the
havoc of decay, but the tendrils were too
fragile, and they hung dropping and
crushed. Beneath the Tyre, were these
lines from her own gifted pen.
A few short years will roll along
Of mingled joy and pain,
And shall pass, a broken tone,
The echo of strain,
All why was I so blind? I knew not
them why. l felt such sensation Of
awe steal over me as l gazed on it.
that deemed it something sacred, yelling
it from every eye but my own. But was
answered, when in few short months they
told me she was dead! The bereaved
mother sent for me, at her beloved ones
last request. I few to her side, and as ]
gazed upon the marble features-beauti.
ful even in death, of her whom I had SO
loved in life, her slight memento conveyed
a deep meaning to my desolate heart
With the prophetic vision, that is at times
accorded to genius Of a superior order,
she saw the angel Of death lowering over
her, she felt that, were she permitted to
live, the wreath of fame might one day
bind her brow, and thus, the broken Tyre,
| the crushed wreath, were emblematic OF
her early doom. She died at the fall Of
leaf and flower, and they laid her in lone
| " nook in the old church-yard, where a
mournful cyprus walled its unceasing dirge
above her head
Months after, when we could speak with
more composure Of our lost darling, they
appealed to me to write an inscription for
her monument. spoke not, but placed
before the weeping mother, the Memento
| No words were needed. She recognized
at once the hand that had traced it, and
the delicate forbearance that had given it
to other keeping, than her own. And SC
it was transferred to plain marble shat,
abruptly broken of near the termination