"
"There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints--"
There was a sudden pause, and Bessie lifted the strain, but ere the
verse was finished, turned suddenly and looked at her mother. The next
moment she was at her side. With the needle in her fingers, with the
song upon her lips, Elizabeth had gone to "Immanuel's Land," without
even a parting sigh.
It seemed almost wrong to weep for such a death. Bessie knelt praying
by her mother's side, holding her hands, and gazing into the dear face,
fast settling into those solemn curves which death makes firm and
sharp-cut, as if they were to endure for ages, until the transition
was quite complete. Then she called in the old servants who most loved
her mother, and they dressed her for her burial, and laid her upon
the small, snowy bed which had been hers from her girlhood. And the
children gathered the white odorous everlastings and the white flowers
in all the garden, and with soft steps and tender hands spread them
over the still breast, and the pure drapery. And when Mr. North came
in with Harry, though Harry wept, the preacher could not. With a face
full of triumph, he looked at her, and said only, "Go in peace; soul
beautiful and blessed!"
It had been well known for more than a year that Elizabeth's life was
held at a moment's tenure.
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