Year: 1874




Sweet Alice! All, how long anG
weary the time had been to her,
Sometimes her heart died within hel
as she thought of the broad ocean
but when she looked so shyly mt Ben
that morn, and saw how handsome
he had grown, a heart sickness came
over her, and the sunshine fell but
dimly on the grass at her feet. She
knew she had hidden away to the
depths of her pure heart, wild
earthly love, and she strOve to put II
from her, for would he think of hel
now? So it was no wonder she should
slip her slender hand i'm her mothers
and steal quietly from the joyous
thr0ng.


1t was Sabbath cve-One of those
balmy, moonlight evenings of the
young summer; Mrs. May had gone
TO visit n sick neighbor, and Alice
sat by the window with the Bible
open, and her slender white fingers
pointing to the words, falling music
ally from he lips


"And there shall he no night there;
and they shall need no candle, neither
light of the sun; for the Lord God
giveth them light, and they shall
reign for ever and ever


She looked tremblingly upward in
the moonlight, for close beside her
knelt the manly form of Ben Bolt.
There was told Il sweet story of love
and hope, not the less sweet for being
the language of every human heart,
and the tiny hands. of sweet Alice
were folded In his as she said, very
low and sweetly: "If / live, Ben,
when five years more have passed,
and you return second time"


She did not finish tit was never
finished.


So they plighted their trOth that
calm, holy Sabbath evening, and the
bu0yant heart of Ben, i'm its gushing
sunniness, pictured radiant hopes for
the future. He was young and 30
full of vitality--every pulse of his
heart was beating gladly, and the
coming five years were more precious
to him than all the past.


eff we both live, Ben, God will
have us in his holy keeping" she
said in answer to his parting words /;
but as he passed her convulsively to
his beating heart, he replied:


"GOd will be merciful to us who
love so dearly, Alice, darling"


She knew 1t, but she knew also
that God did not always answer the
prayer falling from the hopeful lips.
Sweet Alice! AdOwn the future she
looked tremblingly, and saw the
fragile form and spiritual face, with
lilies braided in the soft, brown hair,
her eyes grew dim with tears, for
she knew not if it was II bridal or a
burial, for close beside the altar was
the graveyard.


They were not wanting who wOn-
dered at Ben Bolts choice, and
thought it strange he should take
Alice May in preference to the fairest
and wealthiest. Some there were
who held their heads lOftily when
they passed her, but her heart was
away on the blue waters, and she
needed it not.


How she watched the days in their
passing, she noted how the summer
waned-how the fields of waving
grain grew golden in the sunlight =
she heard the glad voices of the
reapers; and when the leaves were
falling, the merry children went nut
gathering in the woods; then the
noiseless snow fell and lay on the
hillside as in the olden days, until the
genial spring-tide sun melted it away,
and the viOlets and hare-bells dotted
the fields-sO passed a year.


Shn uyna UrNuinU fnirar nn1 morn
beautiful-tOO brilliant for anything
earthly. Once she knelt at the altar
in the little church, and listened to the
words uniting her with the SaviOr's
on earth, but it was only an
outward form, for her heart had long
been i'm the keeping of angels. Again
she watched the waning of the sum-
mer days, and when the soft winds
swept over the silvery rye fields, she
thought Ofthe sea afar, with its broad
waves. All through the winter days
she grew more spiritual i'm her beauty,
and the slender white hands were Of
ten folded on her breast, as she prayed
for those who would soon be left des-
Olate; for she knew she was dying.


1t did not siartle her, she had felt
long ago that the fair green earth
would hold her pulseless heart, ere it
had left the cloister of fgirlhoOd. Life
was sweet and beautiful, yet i'm her
sinlessness, death had no agony, save
her sorrow for those left i'm loneliness.
1t was only n little way to the land of
rest, and her feet had never grown
weary; yet she longed to look once
more upon the flowers, and have
them braided i'm her hair, and so she
fingered on till the voice Of spring was
heard on the hill-tOps.


were gathering back the misty curtain
of the night, and the stars grew dim
in the glory of early morn, sweet AL
ice, stood on the threshold Of Para
disc, and the golden gates were open
ed to the fair, meek girl. There
trembled on heI lips prayer and a
blessing for Ben Bolt, and her mother,
giving radiance to the fair, dead face |;
and they braided spring flowers In
her wavy, brown hair.


The church-bell chimed softly to the
few years earth had claimed the stain
less soul of Alice May, as they
brought the coffin in the little, old
church. Howbeautiful she looked in
her white burial robe; too fair and
sweet for death too holy, had there
not been a resurrection beyond.
Close beside her, stood the friends of
her girlhood gazing on that young
face, as IL they would fain call her
back to life, and its sweet love. So
they laid sweet Alice to sleep in the
old churchyard, and those who had
looked coldly on her, took to their
sorrowing hearts sweet memory of
the early dead.


There was agony too deep for utter
ance when the strong, ardent-hearted
man, whose guiding star had been
the love of that sweet girl came back
to find the cottage home desOlate, and
Alice sleeping beneath a gray stone In
the church-yard.


But God and Time are mercilul,
and as years passed away, he came to
think Of her as garlanded i'm tho
golden fruit .oOp of tha L,dnn IapI