East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1860-10-18

BY GRACE GRHESYooD.

OHc OiiSntj sun mum VI iaSb WeSh
Death suddenly descended upon oul
mountain, like a thunder-bolt out of q
clear sky Our nearest neighbor, an old
man of nearly seventy years, while har.
vestng, was thrown down by his horse
and mortally hurt by their tramplng
hoofs and the heavy wheels of his wagon
He was lifted up by his sons and carried
into his house, murmuring, Lord have
mercy on my soul +" Then some one
dashed off at mad speed for the doctor
who came, and to the JOY Of friends and
kindred, pronounced an opinion that the
injuries were not so serious as had been
supposed, and that the patient would
soon recover and perhaps be as hale and
as hearty as ever. For the honor OF
science, the old farmer should have raj
lied, but, like the poor mother of little
Paul Dombey, he proved to be not equal
to the effort. Exhausted by pain, he
fell into a sleep, and did not wake again.
His kind old wife, who watched over him,
did not know when he ceased to breathe,
so softly and imperceptibly had life ebbed
away in the profound calm Of that last
earthly slnmber. -'........
The priest came too late to bid the
hastipg soul God-speed; it had gone forth
u6aneled--had touched the eternal shore
with unanointed feet.
Yet surely not alone had it gone.--
The mercy of the Lord, so humbly in
voked in the hour Of EXTREMIST heed, had
not left it companionless and forsaken.-
All unconscious, perchance it had passed
through the mighty ohe,ne" e.. 'ho ,''~-
tai to Tie immortal = BONE like sleep
ing Child in the arms Of strong benig-
nant angel, through the valley of shadows
aud mysteries, and over the fearful river,
to be laid gently down in the green
pastures" and beside the "still waters "
of the better land ........
In primitive countrv-places people
seem to be in strange haste to "bury their
dead out of their sight" That night
there was u wake" in the brown farm
house under the hill, and the next day,
hardly twenty-four hours from the time
when news of the fearful accident had
struck a sudden horror through our veins,
we looked out upon a hearse slowly NOV
ing by, bearing the tired old farmer home,
from the harvest-felds he would reap no
more. A long procession followed that
grimes of the great conq
vehicles OF every description, and large
number of men and women on horseback
The aged farmer had been much respect
ed, aud even in this busy harvest-time
friends and neighbors, for many miles
around had gathered to do honor to his
honest memory.
a little below us; at a cross road the
train paused, to say prayers--then crept
on, along the pleasant forest way, up the
mountain, to the summit, where stands
the cross.crowned church and where in
its shadow lie clustered together an ever
growing flock of the faithful, through
balny summers and stormy winters sleep
ing the same deep, quiet sleep. 'tr,i
Strange it was that the passing of that
hearse, bearing by stranger, whom we
had but looked Upon casually once or
twice, in our walks, should suddenly have
clouded for us the radiant heavens and
Swallowed the smiling earth. Nature,
bat brief while before SO joyous and
glowing, in her sumptuous festive appar-
cling, crowned with her summer beauty
and flashing with a thousand ardent
lights, seemed mysteriously to sympathize
with the sight. The regal quietnde
softened into tender melancholy - the
clouds of heaven seemed brooding over
the sorrowful procession--the forest-trees
gave forth awe-struck murmurs as it
passed--the tall hemlocks bowed solemn.
ly before 1.-THE pines, those strange,
sad trees that on the wild sea-shore catch
up the moan OF the great deep and pass
it from mountain-top to mountain-top
around the world, seemed now To breathe
a human pity in their fragrant sighs. All
else was still no woodman's AK panied
the religious silence of the forest--scarce
a merry little bird offended by the sweet
heartlessness Of its happy song.
Up the long accent it moved, that
shadow of our mortal sorrow and perish
able earthly estate, that shadow of the
dead mans hearse - along the way his
feet had often trod, past the spring over
whose brink he may have often bent with
thirsty lip, past lovely green glades, mos
sy banks, and fairy forests Of waving
ferns, on which his eye had often dwelt
with vague and soft delight, and so
passed out of our view. But its memory
went not out of our hearts that day. ID. =,
In this pure, healthful region, where
nature seems so unworn, so youthful and
vigorous--where dwell simplicity, humble
comfort, and quiet happiness, death has
startled us as something strange and un-
natural. Here, where the physician has
seemed to us as a sort of elegant luxury,
an undertaken seems monstrops anom-
ally. yd LslsI v7fraoo 9dT .sy glieui7d
How different is it in the cityl- There
mourners in their weeds, the somber adj
vertiseinent Of their shadow, ,iingle
everywhere with the gay promenaders or
busy crowds Of our streets ~ there in al
most every square one sees depending
from the door aud windows Of soint house
the tell-talc Grape - Deaths mournful
pennons fluttering in The wind. There
on many corner, one is confronted with
the black, significant sign Of the under
takers dreadful trade" or comes upon
some marble-yard, filed with a ghostly
assemblage of anticipatory grave stones