Orangeburg times. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1872-1875, 1874-05-14
No1A

Alice! and down the future she looked
trenblingly, and saw the fragile from
and spiritual face, with lilies brasded in
the soft, brown hair, her eyes grew dim
with tears, for she knew not if it was a
bridal or buriul, for close beside the
altar was the graveyard.
They were not wanting who wondered
at Ben Bolts choice, and thought it,
strange he should take Alice May in
preference to the filircst and wealthiest:
Some there were who held ther heads
loftily when they passed her, buts her
heart was away on the blue waters, tand
she hecrled it not. $: t,I5sS
How she watched the days in, their
passing, she noted how the summer waned
how the fields of waving grain grew
golden in the sunlight-she heard tile,
glad voices ofthc reapers; and when the
leaves were falling, the merry children
went nut gathetiog in the woods; then
the noiseless snow fell and layton the
hillside as in the olden days; ,,until ,,tt the
genial spring-tide sun melted it away.
and the violets and hair-bells dotted the
felds-so passed year. i'na
She ewas growing fairer and morelbsau-
tiful-rco brilliant sor anything earthly.
Once she knelt ut the alter in the !; little
chdrch, and listened to the words uniting
her with the Savior's redeemed on earth, 3
but it was only an outward form, for her
heart had long been in the keeping of
angels. Again she watched the: @atiing
ofthe summer days, and when the soft
winds swept over the silvery rye fields,
she thought of the sea afar, with It's broad
waves. All through the winter days she
grew more spiritaual in her beauty, and
the slender white hands were ess often fol-
on her breast, as she pryed for those who
would soon be left desolate; fbFshoikaew
she was dying. eltsI I,fa
la did not startle her, she had felt
long ago that the fair green earth would
hold her Pnlseless heaat. ere it had left
the cloister of girIhood. Life was sweet !
and beautiful, yet i'll her sinlessness,
death had no agony, save her sorrow. for
those left in loneliness. 1t was only q
little way to the land of rest, and her feet
hal never grown weary; yet she longed
to look once moro upon the flowers, and
have them braided in her hair, and SO
she fingered on till the voice of srring
was heard OH the hill-tops.
One morning when vicwless hands
were gathering back the misty curtain of
the night, and the stars grew dim in the !
glory of early lnorn, sweet Alice, stood
on the threshold of Paradise, and the
golden gates were opened to the fair,
meek girl. There tremblcd on her lips
a prayer and blessing for Ben Bolt.
and her nothcr, giving radiance to the
fair, dead face; and they braided spring
flowers i'll her wavy, brown hair.
The church-bell chimed softly to the
few years earth had claimed the stainless
soul of Alice Mag, as they brought the
coffin in the little, old church. How
beautiful she looked in her white burial
iobc, too illt aiid sweet ZOE deaLn:. 100
holy, had there not been resurrection
beyond. Close beside her, stood the
friends of her girlhood gazing on that
young face, as ifthcy would fiain call her
back to life, and its sweet love. So they
laid sweet Alice to sleep in the old chnrch-
yard, and those who had looked coldly
on her, took to their sorrowing hearts a.
sweet memory of TIE early dead
There was agony too deep for utterance
when the strong, ardent-hcarted man,
whose guiding star had been the love rof
that sweet girl came back to find the, cot
tagc home desolate, and Alice sleeping
beneath gray stone in the church-yaEd.
But God and Time are merciful, and
as years passed away, he came to think
of her as garlanded as the golden fruit
age of Eden land.
This was the memory that his friend
sang of, as they sat in the summer t@i-
light years afterwards, and talked of the
faces that had glimmered and faded III
A. l. Il 49,