Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1875-08-19

and highest-have been saddened by one
or the other of those secret silent trare-
dies which are always happening around
us, which we all know, or at least guess at
but never speak of; nor do they.
| once knew dear old lady-so sweet,
so bright, so clever; wearing her eighty
years "as lightly as flower" When
you talked with her you would have
thought her a woman of thirty, so full
was she of all the quick sympathy of
youth, the wise tenderness of middle age.
OF the weaknesses of old age she had alb
solutely none Her interest in all those
about her was such that she never seemed
to think of herself at all No complaint,
no murmur at her own ailments--and she
had ailments, and SORROWS too-ever fell
from her lips; her only anxiety was about
the cares OF other people, and how she
could tighten them, in great things and
small. Her bounty knew no limits eX-
cept her means, which were not great ;
but" she once said, smiling, II need SO
little; and then you see, my dear, | al
ways pay my bills every week so as to
give no trouble to anybody atterward"
Thus she kept house with the utmost
order yet with ceaseless hospitality. 1t
was indeed the House Beautiful, from
whose gates all who came departed re-
treshed and strengthened, and whence no
creature who came in want or grief was
ever sent empty away.
need not name it; many now living
will remember it; and none who were IA
miliar there could ever forget it, or her, as
L.. toto
old face and her lovely little ringed hands
peaceful, idle hands; since for some years
before she died she was nearly blind. Yet
her blindness, though coming SO late in
life it made her very helpless, never made
her sad or dull; she could still listen to
and join in conversation, and she greatly
liked society, especially that Of the young.
There was always tribe of young people
coming about her, telling her all their
doings and plannings, their amusements
and their troubles She was fond of
them, and they-they adored her! One
girl in particular owned that the first time
this dear old lady voluntarily kissed her
she felt Gas if she had been kissed by her
first love"
When she died-at over eighty, certain
", but her executors had to guess at the
date, for she was an old maid, without any
near relations, and had often said she did
pot even know her own age, it WAS so long
since she was born-when she died there
was found among her private papers a
portrait of a young man IN IA foreign mill
tary dress. No one could guess who it
was; the name-there was a name-no
one had ever heard of. At last some old
acquaintance recalled PARKWAY tradition
of her having been once about to be mar.
ried somehow the marriage was broken
of, but the two remained friends, and, it
was believed, corresponded and occasion
ally met till his death, which happened
when she was about fifty years old. For
his nephew and heir--he having died un-
married-had then been to see her; some
body recollectcd having met the young
man at her house, and her introducing
him by the name on the miniature After
that all was silence. She was never heard
to name the name again. Yet she lived
on for thirty more ycars.
What do you do when you are quite
aloney" was once asked anxiously of her,
when she was too blind either to write or
sew or read.
"What do do9 My dear, | sit and
think. | have SO much to think about
and so many"
"And are you never dull"
"Dull? Oh no! am quite happy"
She was, | am sure You could see it
in her face; the peaceful happiness of "A
soul which has ceased "to bother ITSELF
about itself at all, and isabsorbed in kind
ly cares for other people. Her last act
the last time she ever crossed her thresh.
old-was, | remember, visit of kindness,
partly as an excuse to take for drive "a
person who was too feeble TO walk much
She was then extremely feeble herself, and,
climbing steep stair, one who assisted her
said, anxiously: Il fear you are very
tired " Yes, :" She replied, +" am always
tired now But" turning suddenly round
with the brightest of smiles, never mind /;
it will be all right soon" Four weeks
after she lay in her final rest, looking 50
young, 50 pretty, SO content, that those
who best loved her choked down their sobs
and smiled, saying: It was like puttnga
baby to sleep. "-Hayper's Bazar.
How to Prosper.