Page:Letters of Life.djvu/87

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FIRST GRIEF AND FIRST JOURNEY.
75

holding often my hand long in her own. At suddenly waking she was occasionally bewildered. Images that gave her anxiety would take possession of her imagination. They were frequently of a financial, or rather testamentary character, and easily dispelled, though they as readily returned.

"I wonder what my Will is, my dear, can you tell me?"

This I was qualified to recite, with its full list of legacies, donations, and charitable bequests. Then she was satisfied, and as the dimness passed away, pure sunlight streamed in upon her never wearied benevolence. She would ask about this and that individual; if they had warm clothing and shoes to their feet, if her invalid pensioners had proper food, if such a child went to school, if another needed books or encouragement; for I had been honored as her almoner, and she confided freely to me those alms-deeds which she would fain have kept secret.

Amid all this weakness of body and mind the great Christian soul was strong. Faith saw no cloud—heavenly love no shadow. "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Here she rested, as on an anchor in the rock. "In my flesh shall I see God." Tender were her monitions, as a mother-bird hovering over its young—"O my child, my darling-—watch at Wisdom's gates—wait at the posts of her doors."

It was a fair September evening that the intervals