For whate'er of good dwelt within each heart that helpless girl
had stirred.

They raised a tent, and from their stores they brought the very
best,
Whisp'ring of speedy help to come as each clammy hand they
pressed.
"Nay, friends," he said with a short, sharp laugh, more painful
than sob to hear,
"No help send back, for myself and wife must perforce both settle
here."

Then he sat him down, and placed her head on his aching,
throbbing breast,
While the sweeping rush of the prairie winds seemed to bring
relief and rest,
And her dim eye watched, without a shade of regret or passing
pain,
The receding waggon, soon a speck on the wide and boundless
plain.

"O Will! on your true and tender heart, happy and calm I die,
For I know our lives, though severed here, will be joined again
on high:
One kiss, my husband, loving and loved, one clasp of thy strong
kind hand,
One farewell look in thy mournful eyes ere I pass to the Spirit
Land!

"But, God! what is this?" she wildly asks with hurried, panting