The Shasta courier., 1863-03-21
NUMBER 8.
The Old wife's Kias.

the Old Wife,s Kias.
The funeral services were ended, and as
the voice of prayer ceased, tears were hastily
wiped from wet cheeks, and long drawn
sighs relieved suppressed and choking sobs,
as the " mourneis" prepared to take leave Of
the corpse.
1t was an old man who lay there, robed
| for the grave. More than three score years
had whitened those locks and furrowed that
brow, and made those stiff limbs weary Of
life's journey, AMI all the more willing to lie
down and rest where weariuess is no more
suffered, and in6rmities are no longer bur-
den
| The aged have but few to weep for them
when they die. The most Of those who
would have mourned their loss, have gone to
the grave before them; harps that would
have sighed sad harmonies are shattered and
gone; and the few that remain are looking
cradleward rather than graveyard, Ito life's
opening rather than to life's closing out are
bound to, and living in the generation rising,
more than the generation departing.
Youth and beauty lave many admirers
while living-have many mourners when dy-
ing; and many fearful ones bend over their
cof6ned clay-many sad hearts follow in
their funeral train. But age has few admi
rers, few mourners.
This was an old man, and the circle of
mourners was small. Two children, who had
themselves passed the middle of life, and who
had children of their own to care for, and be
cared for by them. Besides these, and few
| friends who had seen and visited him while
he was sick, and possibly had known him for
few years, there were none others to shed
tear, except his old wife. And of thissmall
company, the old wife seemed to be the only
heart mourner. 1t is respectful for friends
| to be sad for few moments, till the service
is performed and the hearse is out Of sight.
1t is very proper and suitable for children
who have outgrown the iervency and affec-
tions of youth, to shed tears when an aged
parent says farewell, and lies down to quiet
slnmbers. Some regrets, some recollection
of the past, some transitory grief, and the
Tangs are over. Not Always so. But often,
how little true, genuine heart sorrow there
| isl
The old wife arose with difficulty from her
seat, and went to the coffin to look her last
look-fo take her lastfarewell. Through the
fast falling tears she gazed long and fondly
down into that pale unconscious face. What
did she see there? Others saw nothing but
! the rigid features of the dead she saw morel
In every wrinkle of that brow, she read the
history of years. From youth to manhood,
from manhood to old age /; in joy and sorrow,
in sickness and health-it was all there:
when those children, who had now oute rown
the svmpathies Of childhood. were infants
| lying, on her bosom. and every year since.
thezar ere esssj- .Te-sekels 1ss&
mute monitors were uninteIigibIe; her
they were the alphabet of the heart, familiar
as household words
And then the future! "What will be.
come of me? What shall do now?' She
did not say so-she did not say anything
but she felt it. The prospect Of the old wife
is clouded. The home circle is broken, never
to be reunited tn visions of the hearth
stone are scattered forever. Up to that hour
there was home, to which the heart always
turned with fondness. But that magic is
sundered; the keystone of that sacred arch
has fallen, and now home is no where this
side of heaven! What shall the old wife do
now? Go and live with her children? be a
pensioner upon their kindness, where she
may be more of a burden than blessing. so,
at least, she thinks. Or shall she gather up
the broken fragments of that broken arch,
make them her temple and her shrine sit
down in her chill solitude beside its expiring
fires, and die? What shall she do now?
TLey gently crowded her away from the
dead, and the undertaken came forward with
the coffin lid in his hand. 1t is all right and
proper-of course-it must be done; but to
the heart mourner it brings kind of shud-
der, thrill of agony, as when the headsman
comes forward with his ak! The undertaken
stood for moment, with decent proprlety,
not wishing to manifest rude haste. but evil
IDENTIFY desirous of being as expeditions as
possible. just as he was about to close the
coffin, the old wife turned back, and STOPPING
down, imprinted one long, last kiss upon the
cold lips of her dead husband, then staggered
to her seat, buried her face in her hands.
and the closing coffin hid him from her sight
| foreverl
That kiss Fond tc ken of affection, and Of
sorrow, and memory, and farewell? / have
seen many kiss their dead-many such seals
of love upon clay cold lips-but never did l
see one so purely sad, SC simply heart.touch-
ing and hopeless as that! Or, if ithad hope,
it was that which looks beyond cof6ns and
charnel houses, and damp. dark tombs. to the
| ioys of the house above. You would kiss the
cold cheek of infancy there is poetry i, is
beauty blushed there is romance there for
the faded flower is still beautiful in child
hood the heart yields to the stroke of sorrow;
but recoils again, elastic with faith, buoyant
| with hope. But here was no beauty, no po-
| etry, no romance. The heart of the old wife
was like the weary swimmer, whose strength
has often raised him above the stormy waves,
but now exhausted, sinks amidst the surges.
Why should the old love the old. or kiss
the old unloving lips? Ali why shouldn't
they? Does affection grow old? Does the
true heart feel the intirmity of years? Does
| it grow old when the step becomes unsteady,
and the hands hang down? Who shall say
that the heart of the old wife was not as young
and warm as in those early and brighter
DAYS, when he wooed and won her? The
temple of her earthly hopes has fallen; and
what was there left for her but to sit down
in dependency, among its lonely ruins, and
weep and die? Or, in the spirit of better
hope, await the dawning of another day, when
hand divine shall gather its sacred dust,
and rebuild, for immortality, its broken
walls.
! May the old wife's kiss, that linked the
living with the dead, be the token of holier
tie, that shall bind their spirits in that bet
ter land, where tears are wiped from all
faces, and the days of their mourning are
ended!
CoxPLErED-We understand that the new