Page:Twilight Hours (1868).djvu/36

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xxxii
MEMOIR

or three short utterances which show what the writer of these poems was in her acts and her prayers for others.

The first is in acknowledgment of a payment for literary work, which seemed to her in excess of what she had a just claim to : —

"The other half would in any case be God's money. Could you not use that for some good deed ?"

What follows was written for the friend in whose love she found one of the great blessings of her life : —

" A joyous new year ! May God our Father bless you and keep you and hold you close to Himself ; then you will be safe and happy. * * *

"Adieu, my darling. God bless you : Christ keep you : the Holy Ghost be near you."

I know not if I have succeeded in bringing before those who read these pages the living picture which stands out so distinctly in my own memory. I have not thought it right, — scanty as the materials were, occupied, as I am, with other things, — to decline the task. The fact that it was my lot unconsciously to exercise some influence over the growth of " Sadie's " mind, when she was just passing into girlhood, that the later years of her life again brought us into con- tact, and gave me the opportunity of determining, in some degree, the form of her literary work, seemed a