Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1855-07-05

j she thought Of the ocean aisr, with its DToa
waves. All through the winter day she gre
S more spiritual in her beauty, and the slendC
white hands were often folded on her breas
. and she prayed for those who would soon b
, left desolate; for she knew she was dying.
II did not storile her; she had felt Hon
ago that the fair green earth would hold he
} pulseless heart, ere it had left the cloister Q
girhood. Life was sweet and beautiful, vel
in her sinlcssness, death had no agony, saw
her sorrow for those left in loneliness. I
was only avery little way TO the land OF res
and her feet had never grown weary; yet sh
longed to look once more upon the flower
and have them braided in her hair; and 8,
she fingered till the voice OF spring was heart
on the hill-tops. rra r.#t -st
i One morning, when viewless hands were
gathering back the misty curtains of the
night, End the stars grew dim in the glory o
early morn, sweet Alice stood on the thresh.
hold of Paradise, and the golden gates were
opened to the fair, meek girl. There trem.
bled on her lips a prayer and blessing fol-
Ben Bolt, and her mother, giving radiance to
the fair dead face; and they braided spring
flowers in her brown hair.
The church bell chmed softly to the few
years earth had claimed the stainless sou OF
Alice May, as they brought the coflia in the
little old church. How beautiful she looked
in her white burial robe-too fair and swee,
for death-too holy, had there not been re-
surrection beyond. Close behind her stood
the friends of her girlhood, gazing on that
young face, as if they would fain call her
back to life and its sweet love. So they laid
sweet Alice to sleep in the old church. yard,
and those who had looked coldly on her, took
to their sorrowing hearts swee. memory of
the early dead. ei. 'e'.. ..4 ..as
There was an agony too deep for utterance
WI en- the strong, ardsnt-hearted man, whose
guiding star had been the love of that sweet
girl, came back, t. find the cottage home de-
olate, and Alice Sleeping beneath a gray
stone in the church yard. 'H - -
But God and Time are mercirul; and, as
years passed away, he came to think of her
as garlandcd ia the golden fruitage of the
Edenland.
This was the memory that his friend sang
of, as they sat in the summer twilight, years
afterward, and talked of the faces that had
glimmered and faded in their early pathway.
Now, Of all the glad hearts childhood had
clustered together, only they two were left.
Some slept in the jungle depths; others in
the forest shade, and beneath the waving
prairie grass, Some there were who slept
peacefully in the green old church-yard. and
among these, tho .fsirast~ard hests-as41s~eo.
Alice" All, he could never have forgotten
that. . .. GH. ".
He had heard from the lips of that desc.
late mother, ere she went to sleep beside her
darling, how patient and holy Alice had
grown; how she had passed calmly away in
her saint-like beauty; leaving messages that
a fond yearning heart could only dictate
Down in his heart, deeper than any other
earthly thing, he had lain them, cherishing
their beauty and greenness. Many time
had the spirit form of sweet Alice risen be-
fore his eyes in all the beauty of that far off
lend he saw but so dimly, and he knew when
the thing we call life had merged into immor-
taIty, he should met her again.
Years aiterward they laid Ben Bolt to
sleep by the side of sweet Alice. -
NEWARK, N. j., 1852.