Turning to his boy, he bade him be all that a son and
brother should be. With one long embrace his eye rested upon the
Sea-flower; his voice failed him.
"Father," said the child, "you will soon come to us again; then you will
never leave us;" pointing to a little cross which she had privately
embroidered and set up in his state-room, she said, "you will be happy,
father, so happy, on the water! But sometimes, when the stars look down
upon you, or the great waves break over your ship, you will want to see
us; and when you look at the pretty name which you gave me," (pointing
out the word Natalie, which was wrought upon the foot of the cross),
"you may know that I am thinking of you. Our hearts shall be with you."
With a father's blessing upon his children, he suffered them to be taken
away; and as the loud huzza went up from the deck of the steamer, he saw
his little one gazing back upon him, from amidst the waving banners,
with a look which sank into his heart; her gentle words were still
sounding in his ear, and it would seem as if that voice of childhood
was of riper years. Her words were never forgotten. Over the spirit of
the child there came that which she had never known before; ah! gentle
one, it is but the first drop of bitterness which must be mingled with
the sweets in every life.
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