love," each plant and flower that received her gentle attention
would suggest some tender recollection of the loved and lost. As
she trained them to their supports and trellises she would
remember that the white fingers which had so frequently and
lovingly performed the task were now cold in death.

But there was one--a night blooming cereus--which was a particular
favorite of Grace's, and which, even after she knew she had not
long to live, she hoped she would be spared to see bloom. But when
she perceived she was failing so rapidly--quietly, peacefully,
sinking to rest--she said--

"Mamma, darling, I have looked forward with a great deal of
expectancy to the time when my cereus should bloom, I now know my
hope in this respect will not be realized, but I want you, mother,
when it opens out its pure white petals and its fragrance perfumes
the midnight air to remember I shall be in heaven--among fairer
flowers, with sweeter perfume; for they have not been cursed by
sin. And while you mourn at my absence remember I am with Jesus--
'Absent from the body, present with the Lord.'"

And now as the mother tended these flowers, and lovingly lingered
near this special favorite, around which such tender memories
lingered, the flood-gates of her soul were mercifully lifted up
and she "eased her poor heart with tears."

Thus the mother, who was constitutionally the frailer of the two,
and was the one from whom the children had inherited the tendency
to the disease which had carried them off so prematurely, seemed
to come back to herself, so to speak, and she soon manifested a