1863 3^5 the readiest flow of verbiage, were those who had nothing to say. Talkers are not necessarily teachers. My mother was attended during her long and most distressing illness by her sister Kate. No words of mine can express the gratitude I have ever entertained at the bottom of my heart for this tender devotion under most trying circumstances. She will receive her reward hereafter from the hands of Him who repays even a cup of cold water given to one of His children here on earth. The following letter from Miss M. K. Bond to her mother was written on December 6, 1863, the day on which her sister, my dear mother, died. " My Dearest Mother, " My letter of yesterday will have prepared you all for the news which is to follow, and you will all rather rejoice than mourn that our darling Sophy's sorrows are over. This morning at twenty minutes past seven o'clock the gentle spirit fled peacefully and entered into its Sabbath of Rest. She was sinking all yesterday and the day before and hardly spoke all that time. In fact I do not think she uttered a word during Saturday, except ' No ' when food was offered, and c Amen ' to the prayers that Edward read in the morning. I sat up with the nurse till after five o'clock, and during the night she only took in a few spoonfuls of liquids, which seemed to give her great pain. The breathing had become shorter, but the alteration was then not so great as to make me remain, and Mary was called to take my place, and I went to bed thinking she might last on some hours if not through the next day. Very soon after I went away the servants began to perceive a change in the breathing, and at seven o'clock Mary called us all. She was then breathing very shortly but peacefully, and at twenty minutes past seven she gave a little cry and all was over, but so gently did the spirit depart that we watched for some ten minutes ere we could be quite convinced that all breathing had ceased. The last observation that we can remember her making was on Friday evening, after Edward had read prayers, and she turned to Maggie and said, * Ask him if it is wrong to think of a ferny home, ferns and flowers ? ' It seemed appropriate to put her loved plants near her even in death; so we
