The mother called him to her, and taking his little hand in hers, pressed them lightly to her forehead and then to her lips:  looked earnestly into his eyes as though she would penetrate their very depths, then tenderly said: 

“Willie, we are very near to heaven here; it is the music of angels that whispers through the waving trees, and it is the motion of their wings that sways their branches so gently.  O Willie, will you meet me in heaven?”

“Frank, come and kiss me; we are very near heaven; will you too meet your mother there?  Charles, it does not make me sad now to see the place where dear brother Willie passed over the falls.  It looks pleasant now, so near heaven, and his gentle spirit says, ’sweet sister, come;’ surely the things of earth are passing away.  Charles, the dear boys will comfort you when I am gone, and perchance my spirit may meet with yours in sweet communings, and soon we shall meet in heaven to spend an eternity together.  Charles, pray in this beautiful place.  O, those towering mountains apeak the majesty of their Creator.”

“Ellen, dear, ‘remember your Creator in the days of your youth;’ and oh Charles, pray that we all may meet in heaven.”

He knelt and offered up the prayer of faith, but while he concluded, there was a pressure of the hand he held in his, the white lips parted, the head fell heavily upon his shoulder; there was a faint whisper “Jesus, receive my spirit,” and the mother was an Angel.

The boys were overcome with grief.  Charles and Ellen too, were awestruck.

He bore his lovely burden back to the house and wrapped her in the habiliments of the grave.

It was a mournful day in autumn, when a sad procession bore her to her last resting place, and laid her down by the side of her much lamented brother.  The appropriate text, “He that believeth on me shall never die,” comforted the grief-stricken mourners.  She passed away early in life, ere the sun of twenty-four summers had shone upon her pathway.

Charles mourned his loss, but not as one without hope.  And as he turned from the grave to his home and crushed the blighted leaves of autumn beneath his feet, he felt that he too, was passing over withered hopes back to the battle field of human life.

He cast one long, lingering glance upon Matilda’s grave, then looked fervently to heaven, and pressed on to “life and to duty with undismayed heart.”

Ellen soon returned to her grand-parents, and a sister of Mr. Abbot, losing her husband about the same time his wife died, came to reside with him, and thus the husband and children were provided for; and although the shadow of a great grief rested upon them, and there was a vacancy in their household, they learned to be happy in the present good, and by living so as to join the dear departed ones in a happier world.