children; children of whom they had just cause to be proud, for
they early displayed talents which marked them as above
mediocrity, but one after another, just after they had reached
manhood and womanhood, they had fallen victims to that insidious
disease, consumption, and the aged couple were left in their
declining years, sad and lonely, like two aged trunks stript of
their foliage, bare and alone.

Mr. Gurney had been for years engaged in the dry goods and
clothing trade, and had intended his last surviving son should
take the business, but Providence had ordered otherwise, taking
him away just at the time when the father was about to carry out
his long cherished scheme.

After they had laid in the grave the body of their beloved, for a
while a cloud of intense sorrow hung over their home, though they
had faith to believe it was lined with the silver of their
Father's love.

They were too intelligent, and their grief was too intense for
much outward manifestation, but each knew the pregnancy of the
other's sorrow from their individual experiences; and by gentle
ministrations of love each endeavored to soothe and ease the
burdened heart of the other.

Mrs. Gurney found some relief in attending to her household
duties--to the plants and flowers in the conservatory--for they
had one of considerable size. This latter had been the special
duty of her daughter who had preceded her brother by a few weeks
to the grave. And as the mother now engaged in this "labor of