his broken sentences and choking words, as he made an effort to assure
his anxious parent.

"Mother, I have the utmost confidence in the mercy and goodness of
God--even now that he has taken to himself one so very dear. I feel sure
there is some great and important lesson which he would have me learn
from this sorrowful event. I have all faith that Abby is at rest, and
will still love those of us who are left on the earth to mourn. I
believe we shall meet each other in the future, that we shall recognize
and love each other, with a far more perfect and a purer love than we
have cherished here. I shall be lonely, and miss from my hours at home
the counsel, the aid, the cheerfulness, sympathy and attentive love of
one of the best of women. Her beautiful example in the service of her
Master will often be remembered with deep and sincere grief.

"All this I could bear calmly; if it were more bitter, I could bear it
and not weep. But to think of my children--as motherless babes; to hear
Willie tell his sorrow, and mourn so bitterly in his tender years for a
mother--so dear; to feel that with his susceptibility and keen
sensitiveness he realizes so fully his loss; to hear him sob on his
pillow at night, and, when alone, call himself 'little motherless
Willie;'--oh, mother! what man or Christian would not bow beneath a
burden like this?--It is the contemplation of _four motherless children_
that wounds me most. It seems to me Abby herself would not reprove me,
could those cold lips now bring me a message from her spirit in heaven."

* * * * *

With expressions like those in the chamber of the dead was every hour in
the home of David embittered, for weeks and months, by the little