'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.'"
They read it standing side by side.
"How young," murmured the daughter, tears filling her eyes, "how young to
be a wife, a mother, and to die and leave husband and child! Oh, papa, how
I used to long for her, and dream of her--my own precious mamma!"
"When, my darling?" he asked in moved tones, drawing her tenderly to him
and passing an arm about her waist.
"Before I knew you, papa, and before you began to love me so dearly and be
father and mother both, to me, as you have been for so many years," The
low, sweet voice was tremulous with emotion, and the soft eyes lifted to
his were brimming over with tears of mingled grief and joy, gratitude and
love.
"I have tried to be," he said; "but no one could supply her place. What a
loving, tender mother she would have been! But let us forget our loss in
the bliss of knowing that it is so well with her."
It was a family burying-ground; there were other graves; those of our
Elsie's grandparents, and several of their sons and daughters who had died
in infancy or early youth; and in the midst uprose a costly monument,
placed there by Mr. Grayson after the death of his wife. The spot showed
the same care as the rest of the estate, and was lovely with roses and
other sweet flowers and shrubs.
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