The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 42, April, 1861 by Various
page 41 of 293 (13%)
page 41 of 293 (13%)
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or such inevitable discipline as life must always bring with it, if by
no gentler means, the soul which had been left by Nature to wander into the path of error and of suffering might be reclaimed and restored to its true aim, and so led on by divine grace to its eternal welfare. He closed his prayer by commending each member of the afflicted family to the divine blessing. Then all at once rose the clear sound of the girls' voices, in the sweet, sad melody of a funeral hymn,--one of those which Elsie had marked, as if prophetically, among her own favorites. And so they laid her in the earth, and showered down flowers upon her, and filled her grave, and covered it with green sods. By the side of it was another oblong ridge, with a white stone standing at its head. Mr. Bernard looked upon it, as he came close to the place where Elsie was laid, and read the inscription,-- CATALINA WIFE TO DUDLEY VENNER DIED OCTOBER 13TH 1840 AGED XX YEARS. A gentle rain fell on the turf after it was laid. This was the beginning of a long and dreary autumnal storm, a deferred "equinoctial," as many considered it. The mountain-streams were all swollen and turbulent, and |
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