Year: 1862

what and | was put into coach, won
deriug why the tears welled into my
aunt's eyes for I didn't cry then.
learned that at school, where / learned
many other things, scme very we'll in
their way, some it had been better for me
had never known.


There were strange looks, and cover
smiles at the old fashion dresses that /
didn't understand then. The old FASH
ioned dresses We're worn out after a while
but the friendship that was not offered
when I wore them, was not accepted
when [ wore others of more modern
Istyle and | saw the end of the days 'of
my boarding school life without having
sought or obtained a single friend. My
uncle came for me then, he came with a
bowed form, and Grape on his hat, and
took my hand in his very tremblingly, as
the tears one after another trickled down
his furrowed face,


"She is gone, Myra-gone and we
are left alone--all alone %


'Who, uncle p


"Your aunt. Up yonder, Myra.''


And he pointed where white, ghostly
clouds were sailing over the far off sky.


dead, uncle ? Aunt dead %


"No, not dead, Myra--not dead only
gone with the pale boatman over the
bridgeless river only gone to land OF
fairer skies and purer love than this, to a
land where the flowers never close, and
the summer is forever"


That was the land of my dreams. Was
it true that should not see the land OF
my longing with these earthly eyes p
Was it only in heaven that peace and
sunshine ever fingered =?


"We will go to Brighton, Myra l
can't stay in the old house when she isn't
there. She was my first love, Myra--the
only one love of my life and feel now,
that in our devotion to each other, we
were hardly just to you. We have loved
you, Myra but somehow I feel that
your little joys and sorrows were not as
they should have been-a part of our
care. I have not felt until now how
hard it was to be alone"


I took his hand in both of mine, and
wept, 1 hardly knew why. I had never
loved my aunt had never loved any
one, for no one had ever asked me to I;
but the low words of sorrow, were so
much the echo of my own soul, in its
long quest for sympathy, that the tears
would come. Poor uncle Warren His
heart was much wider and more tender
than I thought it but had never crept
within it, for l never knew there was any
room for me. But might I not now =
Might I not almost fill the place that
aunt Warren had filled 1t might
have been so, had he been left with us !;
but when the city spires were all that
rose against the arching blue sky, again
came the boatman pale, and took him
away through the unseen waters.


l had yet All aunt-the last of my kim
dred, and to her care I was left. Gay
guests were ever In the rooms for my
aunt was wealthy, and my cousins were
beautiful and used to sit all alone in
the shadow Of the curtains, wishing for
just one to love me- AS the unfolding of
a heavenly flower comes the memory of
June day, when handsome man knelt
at my feet and called me beautiful--knelt
and asked me to love him.


What answer should I make to him {?
I did not know but I babe him go away
then, and come again on the morrow
And when the last echo of his footsteps
had died away, I ran up to my little room
locked out everything but the sunshine.
and sat down to think


And he had stopped to call me beauti-
full he, the noble, the gifted and I
stood by the mirror, and put back the
curls of midnight hair, and gazed long
and searchingly into the face that met
me. There was a pair Of dark, flashing
ing eyes a white face, that no winds
could fan into rose-hue lips little too
full to be naughty and g mass of black
hair that might have been braided into
diadem. Was it beautiful -? He had
said so Did | love him The pierre
ing eyes that | saw, softened, and | press
ed my hands close over my heart, to shut
in its throbbings,and then the tears came,
tears of happiness.


Did love him Tonight l ask the
question. And the eyes l see are wild,
the lips | see are compressed, and again
l clasped my hands close over my heart,
and wished the tears would come. Oh !!
the bliss of the beautiful long ago, when
the light Of love came to my eyes, and
the thrill of happiness to my heart. Oh
the darkness of that night, that came
like an avenging soul on the full glory of
life's morniew