weariness into a deep sleep; in the mean time the coffin was carried into a
distant room, and there nailed down, that she might not hear the blows of
the hammer. When she awoke, and wanted to see her child, the husband,
with tears, said, “We have closed the coffin; it was necessary to do so.”
“When God is so hard to me, how can I expect men to be better?” she
said with groans and tears.
The coffin was carried to the grave, and the disconsolate mother sat with
her young daughters. She looked at them, but she saw them not; for her
thoughts were far away from the domestic hearth. She gave herself up to her
grief, and it tossed her to and fro, as the sea tosses a ship without compass
or rudder. So the day of the funeral passed away, and similar days followed,
of dark, wearisome pain. With tearful eyes and mournful glances, the
sorrowing daughters and the afflicted husband looked upon her who would
not hear their words of comfort; and, indeed, what comforting words could
they speak, when they were themselves so full of grief? It seemed as if she
would never again know sleep, and yet it would have been her best friend,
one who would have strengthened her body and poured peace into her soul.
They at last persuaded her to lie down, and then she would lie as still as if
she slept.
One night, when her husband listened, as he often did, to her breathing,
he quite believed that she had at length found rest and relief in sleep. He
folded his arms and prayed, and soon sunk himself into healthful sleep;
therefore he did not notice that his wife arose, threw on her clothes, and
glided silently from the house, to go where her thoughts constantly
lingered-to the grave of her child. She passed through the garden, to a path
across a field that led to the churchyard. No one saw her as she walked, nor
did she see any one; for her eyes were fixed upon the one object of her
wanderings. It was a lovely starlight night in the beginning of September,
and the air was mild and still. She entered the churchyard, and stood by the
little grave, which looked like a large nosegay of fragrant flowers. She sat
down, and bent her head low over the grave, as if she could see her child
through the earth that covered him-her little boy, whose smile was so
