Year: 1869

affection of youth to shed tears when an
aged parent says farewell, and lies down
to quiet sIumber Some regrets. some
reconciliations of the past, some transito-
rv griefs. and the pangs are over. Not
always so. But often how little true gen.
nine heart sorrow there is


The old wife arose with difficulty from
her seat. and went to the coffin to look
her last look-to take her last farewell.
Through the fast falling tears she gazed
long and fondly down into the pale un-
conscious face What did she see there
Others saw nothing but the rigid features
of the dead; she saw more. In every
wrinkle of that brow she read the history
Of years. From youth to manhood. from
manhood to old age; in joy and sorrow
in sickness and health it was all there
when those children who had not quite
outgrown the sympathies Of childhood
were infants lying on her bosom, and
every year since then-there it was! To
oth4rs those dull, mute. monitors were
unintelieihle; to her they we're the al
phahet of the heart familiar as household
words.


And then the future? ''What will be-
come of me? What shall I do now ?'-
She did not say 80. she did not say any
thing. but she felt it. The prospect ol
the old wife is clouded. The home circle
is broken. never to be reunited the vision
of the hearthstone is scattered forever. -
Up to that hour there was home to which
the heart always turned with fondness. =
but the magic is sundered-the keystone
of that sacred arch is fallen, and now
home is nowhere this side Of heaven. -
What. children! be pensioner upon their
kindness. where she may be more of a
burden than blessing; so at least, she
thinks Or, shall she gather up the scat
tered fragments of that broken arch. and
make them her temple and her shrine
sit down in her still solitude beside its
expiring fires, and die What shall she
do now?


They gently crowded her away from the
dead and the undertaken came forward
with the coffin lid in bis hand It is all
right and proper-of course-it must be
done; but to the heart mourner it brings
a kind of shudder-a thrill of agony
The undertaken stood for moment
with decent propriety. not wishing to
manifest rude haste. but evidently desir-
|ous Of Being as expeditious as possfofe -
just as be was about to close the coffin,
the old wife turned back. and, STOPPING
down imprinted one long, last kiss upon
the cold lips of her dead husband, then
staggered to her seat, buried her face in
her hands, and the closed coffin hid him
from her sight forever


That kiss! Fond token of affection,
and of sorrow. and memory. and fare
we'll! have seen many kiss their dead
many such seals oflove upon cold lips
but never did [ see one so purely and so
simply heart-touching and hopeless as
that? Or. if it had hope. it was that
which looks beyond cofins and charnal
houses. and damp dark tomhs. to the
joys of the home above. Would you kiss
the cold cheek of infancy; there is poetry;
it is beauty bushed; there is romance
there: for the faded flower is still beauti-
full! In childhood the heart yields to the
stroke of sorrow; but recoils again with
elastic faith, buoyant with hope. But
here was no beauty. no poetry no romance.
The heart of the old wife was like the
weary swimmer. whose strength has often
raised him above the stormy waves. but
now exhausted, sinks amidst the surges.


Why should the old love the old, or kiss
the old, unloving lips? All why should
Mt they? Does not affection grow old ?
Does the true heart feel in6rmity of years?
Does it grow old when the step becomes
unsteady, and the hand hangs down?


Who shall say that the heart of the old
wife was not as young and warm as in
those early and brighter days. when he
wooed and won her? The temple of her
earthly hopes had fallen; and what was
there left for her but to sit down in des-
pondency, among the lonely ruins, and
weep and die! Or, in the spirit of better
hope, await the dawning of another day,
when a hand divine shall gather the sacred
dust. and rebuild for Immortality it's brok-
en- walls


NJ y the old wife's kiss, that linked the
living with the dead. be the token of "a
boiler life that shall bind their spirits in
the better land, where tears are wiped
from all faces. and the days of their mourn
ing are ended