"That one so formed in mind and charms to grace,
The brightest scenes of life, should have her seat
In the shadow of a cloud; and yet 'tis weakness.
The angels watch the good and innocent,
And where they gaze it must be glorious."
MRS. BALE'S "ORMOND GROSVENOR."
My gentle reader will pardon the long stride of time which here
intervenes, disclosing nothing of those in whom we feel an interest.
Nearly a year of moments had sped since that in which Mrs. Santon had
passed away. Winnie had seen her loved mother laid in that narrow,
silent house, which is prepared for the dead, and her tears had watered
the green grass which groweth so silently,--upspringing everywhere, even
in the lonely places of burial, a fit covering for those who
slumber,--emblematical of the life beyond the tomb. The joyous mirth
which abode in Winnie's nature had superseded, in a measure, days of
deep mourning; yet this first taste of earth's sorrow had left an
impress upon her mind never to be erased; and though thoughtless ones
perhaps observed no change in her young, elastic spirits, there was one,
gentle and youthful, who had been to her as a mother in her
bereavement,--the Sea-flower.
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