News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-11-16

and sorrow were SO completely blended.
Still he was alive ne was come home
he might yet live to comfort and cherish
her old age Nature, however, was
exhausted in him and if anything had
been wanting to finish the work of fate,
the desolation of his native cottage
would have been sufficient. He stretched
himself on the pallet on which his wild
owed mother had passed many sleep.
less night, and he never rose from it
again.
The villagers, when they heard that
George Somers had returned, crowded
to see him, offering every comfort and
assistance that their humble means
afforded. He was too weak. his mother
was his constant attendant and he
seemed unwilling to be helped by any
other hand.
There is something in sickness that
breaks down the pride of manhood
that softens the he ct, and brings it
back to the feeiiDgs rss4ihiancy. Who
that has languished, even III advanced
life, in sickness and despondency-who
that has pined on weary bed, in the
neglect and loneliness of foreign land,
but has thought on the mother that
looked on his childhood" that soothed
his pillow, and administered to his help
lessness. Oh there is an enduring ten
derness in the love OF mother to son,
that transcends ali the other affections
of the heart. 1t is neither to be chilled
by selfshness, nor daunted by danger,
nor weakened by worthlessness, nor
stifed by ingratitude. She will sacrifice
every comfort to his convenience, she
will surrender every pleasure to his en-
ioyment she will glory in his fame,
and exult in his prosperity ; and if ad-
versity overtake him, he will be dearer
to her by misfortune; and if disgrace
come upon his name, she will still love
and cherish him a: and if all the world
beside cast him of, she will be all the
world to him.
Poor George Somers had known well
HbdG ~ NaS W 10 IL S1ChhSSS dHu 10
have none to soothe, lonely and in
prison and none to visit him. He could
not endure his mother from his sight;
if she moved away, his eye would fol-
low her. She would sit for hours by
his bed, watching him as he slept.
Sometimes he would start from a fe-
verish dream, and look anxiously up
until he saw her venerable form bend
ing over him, when he would take her
hand, lay it on his bosom, and fall
asleep with the tranquility of child.
In this way he died.
My first impulse on hearing this hum
BILE tale of aft lotion, was to visit the
cottage of the moErner and admins
ter pecuniary assis tance, and, if pos
sible, comfort. I found, however, on
inquiry, that the good feelings of the
villagers had prompted them to do ev-
erything that the case admitted, and as
the poor know best how to console each
others SORROWS, I did not venture to in
trude.
= nest
Iage chu rch, when, to my surprise, L
saw the old woman tottering down the
aisle to her accustomed seat on the steps
of the altar.
She made an effort to put on some
thing like mourning for her son and
nothing could be more touching than
this struggle between pious affection
and utter poverty +; black riband or so
"a faded black handkerchief, and one
or two more such humble attempts to
express by outward signs that grief
which passes show. When I looked
round upon the storied monuments, the
stately Indictments, the cold marble
pomp with which grandeur mourned
magnifcently over departed pride, and
turned to this poor widow, bowed down
by age and sorrow at the altar of her
God, and offering up the prayers and
praises of pious though broken heart,
felt that this living monument of real
grief was worth them all.
I related her story to some OF the
wealthy members OF the congregation
and they were moved by it. They ex-
erted themselves to render her situa-
ton more comfortable, and to tighten
her affections. 1t was, however, but
smoothing few steps to the grave. In
the course of Sunday or two after, she
was missing from her usual seat at
church and before / left the neighbor-
hood I heard, with feeling of satisfac-
ton, that she had quietly breathed her
last, and had gone to rejoin those she
loved in that world where sorrow is
never known and friends are never
parted