Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-09-18

reaved by the death ange., although his
words are but mere forms.
81 have to pass the house to meet my
business engagement, and should be glad
to accompany you, i. it would be agree
able to you"
"Certainly, thank you. Don't wait
up for me father, or you, boys; it is i'm
possible to tell hoy long may have to
stay"
The house is about three-cusrters Of q
mile distant and Cora feels that she must
give wings to her feet.
"Who is Lexie Goldsmith" Vincent
asks, as they quickly walk.
go, she is little crippled girl of
fourteen, living with her uncle and aunt,
who are in poor circumstances, owing to
her uncle's dissipated habits. Her father
died when she was but an infant, and
her mother, after weary struggle with
life, followed him some five years ago;
so Lexie had been compelled to live with
her only relatives. She is a wonderfully
sensitive child, mature beyond her years,
! and everything lacking in refinement has
Jared terribly upon her finely strung
nerves. l think have understood her,
and she has chung to me with a tenacious,
devoted affection, that has been fully re-
turned by me. l did love the child.
She has been my confident as we'll as l
hers, and she has been a real help to
me-"
They reach the dilapidated house, and
Vincent pursues his course onward, while
Cora enters the dwelling.
The face of the child, struck with
death, looks, oh, so CHASTITY, and a
shudder runs through Cora's frame as
she sees the change wrought in her. But
she quickly RECEIVERS herself, and hears
Lexie talking in a voice unnaturally
strong and clear to her uncle. go, be
good, uncle, and meet me in heaven,
promise me, o, promise me, that you
will" The dissolute man is visibly
affected, and hot tears came down his
cheeks as he promises. Then noticing
Cora, her face lights up, and she says:
"Dear Sister Cosie, 1 am so glad you
have come," and grasping her hand, con-
tinues, 81 know you will meet me there. J"
Then turning to her aunt, she says:
care you s,sre I shall see and know my
mother there? O, my mother, want to
see my mother. They laid her out in
white, and she looked so pale, and still,
and beautiful. When die l cannot lie
straight in the coffin like other people.
You will have to put me on my side.
Dress me in white. O, am going to
heaven" The voice has grown husky
and faint, YEARLY she leans back, saying:
"Sing, sing, Sister Cosie."
"What shall singG
"Safe-Jesus
And the sweet old song, "Safe in the
arms of Jesus" was waited out into the
still night air. Cora possessed a voice
Of rare power and richness, thrilling in
it's intensity, but it was only when
stirred by some deep feeling or emotion
that she gave full vent to the depths of
its expression.
Vincent had finished his business
transaction, and had just reached the
little house when the soft notes fell upon
his ear. He stepped to the threshold of
the open door, filed with nameless
awe which would not allow him to in
terrupt the solemnity of the scene by
knocking. And such picture as swept
across his vision. No one in the room
had noticed that the light of day had
gradually dissolved itself into twilight,
and that the twilight was fast aeeing
into night, all being absorbed with the
awful sublimity of the approaching
death; so the lights had not been
brought in. Pickering shadows came
and went over the dull, faded carpet.
The pale moon rising up slowly and
looking in at the windows, shed its
silvery light across two heads; the one,
that of the fragile, dying child, with the
finely chiseled, beautiful face, and the
rich, dark ringlets clustering over the
high, white brow; the other, could this
| be Cora Shattuck7 He had never thought
her beautiful before; one plump hand
closed over the thin frail one within it,
and the face looked full and fresh in
sharp contrast to the delicate one beside
| it, but it had become transigured. The
calm moon resting on her hair, changed
it into halo of glory. The beautiful
eyes were shining with light he had
| never before noticed. The soul seemed
almost to be creeping through its earthly
partitions and as she sang, "There by
his love o'ershaded," the same holy
hight shone with radiant effulgence in
the two faces, in the face oil the one
whose earthly life was fast ebbing out,
and in the face of the other, full of the
bloom Of youthful life, with all its fiery
ambitions, its exalted hopes, its lofty
asDirations. The sweet, thrilling voice,