Peace to thy ashes, gentle one! "Light lie the turf" upon thy bosom,
until thou comest forth to a morning, that shall know no night!

After the birth of this their first child, the parents were continually
reminded of the shortness and uncertainty of life, by repeated
sicknesses in the social circle, and by the sudden death of one of their
number, a beloved sister.

Whether it was that this had its influence in the shaping of the
another's instructions, or not, yet such was the fact, that the subject
of a preparation for early death, was not unfrequently the theme, when
religious instruction was imparted. The mind of the mother was also
impressed with the idea of her own responsibility. She felt that the
soul of the child would be required at her hands, and that she must do
all in her power to fit it for heaven. Hence she was importunate and
persevering in prayer, for a blessing upon her efforts; that God would
graciously grant his Spirit, not only to open the mind of her child to
receive instruction, but also to set it home and seal it there.

Her solicitude for the spiritual welfare, of the child was such, as
often to attract the notice of the writer; while the results forced upon
her mind the conviction, that the tender bud, nurtured with so much care
and fidelity, and watered with so many prayers and tears, would never be
permitted to burst into full flower, in the ungenial soil of earth.

Mary Jane had hardly numbered three winters, when a little sister of
whom she was very fond, was taken dangerously sick. Her mother and the
nurse were necessarily confined with the sick child; and she was left
very much alone. I would fain have taken the little girl home with me;