Year: 1868

tne angels, Tor believe there are good


angles to take our hand when the toilinp


up is hard. keep looking at that Pearly


Gate, and gay as l seem sometimes.


know it is left "ajar" for me. l hardly
know how it all came about, or why
was SO blind. Mr. Murford was with me
every day after that. We walked, we
rode, we sang together and init all Eva
mingled, for l would have her share nv
every joy, and before I'knew it my whole
heart had gone out to Mr.. Murford, as it
never had before to living man, and as it
never can again. Imust have been ueru
blind he never spoke to me of love, but
l was so all-absorbcd in him l never
thought but that the feeling must be mu-
tual, until one morning Eva came to me
with those wondrous eyes all ablaze with
light and cheeks with dye of autumn sun
set; she didn't stop to speak, but ran and
buried her face in my bosom, and sobbed
her JOY out in delicious tears | needed
no word to tell what it meant, for from
my window had [ seen her and Hazleton
Murford walking in the garden together,
and he had left without asking for me.
don't know how it was my heart beat on
through all that agony, but it did, with a
dull, leaden sound like the knell for the
dead. One brief, bitter struggle, and I
buried it all-that bright young love,
never to know a resurrection.


" No one entered into the wedding pre-
parations so gayly asI no one wove such
webs of future bliss for the young couple,
and dressed Eva for her bridal-for him,
with smile on my lip, while. the only
gladncss that coull come to my heart
again was, that she was happy Dear,
idolized Eva, how little she dreamed. in
her fondness, she was walking over my
crushed heart during all those days of
bridal preparation The only display of
my agony was when, at parting, | said to
Hazleton-'' If you do not make her hap
py shall kill you, for she is part of
myself" And, truly. he could not fail to
make any woman's life blessed, and she
into all his labors she entered with
zeal too strong for her fragile constitution.
Say what you will, my dear, people are
exacting; and when they found Eva
would enter into all the work and care of
the parish equally with her husband, they
let her do it, and made more and more de.
mands upon her. Truly, she had /" moth
ing else to do" which was my text at the
outset of this conversation. The poor
girl heard that till she began to believe it,
and went from one duty to another until
she could go no longer and so, after
welded life of three brief years, folded
her hands and was at rest. Could she
have had the rest when living, she might
still have been with us, but now, the girl
turned fercely, and confronted Carrie
with blazing eyes that made her tremble,
" She lies in that cemetery; she and he,
for her death crushed him. You can see
the white shaft of their common grave
from this window, reared bv their people
mockery of devotion! They will trem-
bic in the judgment day, when the short
ened lives of these two pure beings shall
confront them"


:" Hush, Kate ' Carries warning hand
laid gently on her own, stopped the girl
in her anger, and her old repose came
back }" they did it ignorantly."


=" And so so you will be another victim to
Ignorance ?"


L" Not SO; l shall not try to please the
people, but God only. I shall try to do
my duty, and nothing more or less than
that, whatever people may say. Come to
Rockdale parsonage, year hence, and
see if the roses are not still blooming on
my cheek, despite your gloomy proph-
ecies."


And it was so. For many year there
after Kate visited the happy Carrie in her
pleasant home, and learned to appreciate
and love g the people" and compassionate
less the minister's wife.