 | CHAPTER LIV. The new purchase, or, Seven and a half years in the far West |  |
54. CHAPTER LIV.
The destiny of earth,
That death, with shadowy hand hath dealt
Rebuke amid your mirth;
To you this tribute of a word,
When other sounds have fled,
Will come like lov'd tones, faintly heard—
The memory of the dead.”
—Mellen.
Our family was usually very harmonious: yet the surface
of our quiescence was occasionally ruffled. For instance,
Mr. Carlton believed that Miss Elizabeth Carlton,
now nearly four years old, if she did spell, ought to do it
by sounds of the letters: Aunt Kitty insisted it ought to
be in the march of mind way—by pictures of things. And
Aunt Kitty carried the day, affirming that the baby could
learn to spell in six days!—Mr. Carlton not caring whether
she spelled or not, provided she had plenty of air and
sunshine, and played all the time with a kitten or a doll.
But when he obstinately persisted that the little one could
not ever learn to spell by pictures, and must do it by
the sounds of separate letters, away flounced Aunt Kitty
after a caricature book; and then flouncing back she said
with a voice of triumph:
“There, Mr. Carlton, spell her any where.”
“Well, dearee, what does c-o-w spell?”—covering at
the same time the figure with the hand.
“Cow,” said the baby in an instant.
“There! Mr. Carlton—now sir!”—dixit Aunt Kitty.
“How do you know, dearee, that it spells cow?”—said
Mr. C.
“I sees the—legs!”—replied baby.
Aunt Kitty put out; while echo maliciously repeated—
“There! Mr. Carlton—now sir!”
—Dear one! that was true learning Aunt Kitty gave
you daily from the Word of God. She did, indeed, by her
living voice, teach in figures about heaven! even as the
blessed word itself. And it was to that heaven, dearest!
you went not many months after; when death so strangely
quenched the light of those sweetly soft blue eyes!
Parents! have you children in heaven? The author
hopes he has five. And shall we not strive to rejoin the
loved ones, where day-dreams are no more; and all is
glorious, satisfying, unending reality?
| CHAPTER LIV. The new purchase, or, Seven and a half years in the far West | |