Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1855-12-18

ocean ; but when she looked so sbviy al Rer
that morning and saw how handsome he hao
grown, heart sickness came over her, and the
sunshine fell but dimly at her feet. She knew
she had hidden away in the depths of her pure
heart only love, and she strove to put il from
her; for would he think of her now ? So. il
was no wonder she should slap he slender hand
in her mothers and steal quietly from the low
Gus throng.
1t was Sabbath eye-one of those balUav
moonlight evenings of the young summer
Mrs. May had gone to visit sick neiehbor, and
Alice sat by the window with the Bible open
and her slender white fingers pointing to the
words falling so musically from her lips
" And there shall be no candle, neither light
OF the sun for the Lord God giveth them light
and they shall reign for ever and ever"
She looked trembingly up in the moonlight
tor close behind her knelt the manly form OF
Ben Bolt. There was told sweet story of love
and hope, not the less sweet for being the Ian
guage of every human heart, and the tiny hands
OF Alice clasped III his as she said very low and
sweotly
:" If live, Ben, when five wears have passed
and you return second time"
She did not finish tit never was finished
So they plighted their troth, that calm, holy
| Sabbath evening and the buoyant heart of Ben
IN Its gushing sunniness, pictured radiant hopes
OF the future He was young and full of Vi
talty-eVery pulse of his heart vas beating
gladly, and the coming five years We're more
precious TO him than all the past.
q" If we both live, Ben, Cos. viii have Us in
his holy keeping" she said in answer to his
parting words but as he pressed her convul-
slvely to his beating heart he replied
a." God viii be mercifui 70 those who love so
dearly, Alice, darling"
She knew it but she knew also that God did
not always hear the prayer falling from the
hopeful lips, Sweet Alice Adown the future
Ben looked trembingly, and as he saw her fra
glle form and spiritual face, with white lilies
braided III the soft brown hair, his eyes grew
dim with tears, for he knew not if twas a bri-
dial or burial, for beside the altar was the grave
yard.
They were not wanting who wondered at Ben
Bolts choice, and Thoughts it strange he should
take Alice May in preference to the fairest and
wealthiest. Some there We're who held their
heads lofty when they passed her, but her
heart was on the blue waters and she needed it
not
How she watched the summer davs in their
passing. She noted how the summer waned-
bow the fields of waving grain grew yellow in
the sun-light-she heard the voices of the reap
e-s and wher the leaves were falling the child
ren went nut gathering in the woods when
the noiseless snow fell and lay on the hill sides,
as in olden days, until the genial spring tide
sun melted ii away, and the violets and hare
bells dotted the fields. So passed the year
She was growing fairer and more beautiful-too
brilliant for anything earthly. Once she knelt
at the alter in the little church, and listened to
the words uniting her with the Saviour's re-
deemed of earth hut it was only an outward
form for her heart had long been in the keeping
of angels. Again she watched the waning of
the summer days, and when the soft wind swept
over the silvery rye fields, she thought of the
ocean afar with It's broad waves. All through
the winter day she grew moro spiritual in her
beauty, and the slender white hands were offer
folded ON her breast and she PRAYED for those
who she knew would soon be left destitute Tor
she knew she was dying.
It did not startle her for she had felt long
ago that the fair, green earth would hold her
pulseess heart, it had left the cloister of girl
hood. Life was sweet and beautiful, and in her
sinlessness, death had no agony, save her sorrow
for those left in loneliness. 1t was only a very
little way to the land of rest, and her feet had
never grown weary vet She longed to look once
more upon the flowers and have them braided
in her hair; and so she fingered till the voice
of spring Was heard round the hill-tops
One morning when viewless hands were gath
ering back the misty curtains of the night and
the stars grew dim in the glory of early morn,
Alice stood the threshold of Paradise, and
the golden gates were opened to the fair, meek
girl. There trembled on her lips a prayer and
a blessing for Ben Bolt and her mother giving
radiance to her fair dead face, and the braided
spring flowers in her brown hair,
The church bell chmed softly to the years
earth had claimed the stainless soul Of Alice
May as they brought the coffin in the little old
church. How beautiful she looked in her white
burial-too holy, had there not been a resurrec-
tion beyond Close behind stood the friends of
her girl-hood 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 looked
coldly on her, took to their sorrowing hearts a
sweet memory Of the early dead.
There was agony too deep for utterance, when
the strong ardent-hearted man, whose guiding 9
star had been the love Of that sweet girl, came
back to find the cottage home desolate, and Alice
sleeping beneath the gray stone in the old
church yard.
But God and time are merciful; and as years
passed away, he came to think of her as gar
landed in the golden fruitage of Heaven.
This was the memory that his friend sang Of,
as they sat In the summer twilight, years after
ward. and talked Of the faces that had glim-
mered and faded in their early pathway. Now,
of all the glad hearts childhood had clustered
together, only they two were left Some slept
in Jungle depths others in the forest shade, and
beneath the waving prairie grass. Some there
were who slept peacefully IN the old church
ward among these, the fairest and the best was