permission to accompany her. The other sons and daughters had grown up, and left one after another the old homestead; until Agnes, the youngest-the petted child of old age, now fast creeping upon the parents— was the only one left to cheer the once merry fireside. She had out-grown the mere unthinking gladness of childhood, but had not yet reached the time when selfishness mixes with the pure current of love. Unlike the others, nature had endowed her with the richest charms of beauty, as if to add a new link to the chain which bound her so strongly to her parents. With dark eyes and jet black hair, set off by a luxuriance of health which gives such a light and bloom to the countenance; full of buoyant mirth and gaiety, softened by a mildness and propriety that won every beholder-she had been the pride and loved one of the village at every rustic gathering. From among her numerous admirers she had selected one who was, in every respect, worthy of her, and who, engaged in a course of collegiate study, in which he was gathering the brightest laurels, had led her to look forward to a preparation for a higher sphere of action than she had yet filled. His college vacations were spent at her father's house; and the beautiful scenery of woods and mountains around them, where they sought out every fairy knoll and heath-covered fell, and among which they passed many a long Summer afternoon, "While time seem'd young, and life a thing divine," increased and strengthened the pure and devoted love which had grown up between them. Indeed, no one could see her, in her neat and simple dress, with a profusion of dark glossy tresses escaping from her sunbonnet, so unsuspecting and innocent; now hanging upon his arm, with her soft dark eyes fixed upon his manly face, and anon bounding away over the hills, or along the narrow beach, with the lightness of a roe, laughing at his vain attempts to overtake her; without confessing that here surely was real unselfish attachment. It was during one of these walks, in the autumn before, that they sat upon the side of a large rock, the extreme end of which shot out into the deepest part of the lake, forming a bluff and bold shore for nearly a quarter of a mile. Wearied with the excitement of a long walk and the warmth of the day, Agnes had laid her bonnet in a crevice of the rock just above them, and was parting back the ringlets from her brow, when a light gust of wind lifted it from the rock, and rolled it over the side, toward the water. Both sprang from their seats to grasp it; and the lover, in his haste to save it, unconsciously stepped upon a slippery part of the rock, and was precipitated at once into the lake. The poor girl sprang to the edge of the bank, but he had sunk, and probably becoming entangled in the weeds at the bottom, never again rose! With the most pitiable screams she alarmed some men, who were at work near by, one of whom dived several times near the spot where he had disappeared, but without suc cess; and the poor girl was taken home-a raving maniac. : Months had passed after this heart-rending event, before Agnes had so sufficiently recovered as to be able to leave her room. And then how changed! The elastic step, and bright eye, and laughing face, were gone, without leaving a single relic of her beauty! The winter came and went; and the beautiful spring too, with its fresh breezes, and bright flowers, and soft tones, without one glad feeling in her heart. Never again was her bright and noble spirit lifted up; for her heart lay buried in her lover's grave. And the summer month was to witness the last office which her friends could pay her. She had been calm and unmurmuring under the whole, but it had long been too evident to all her friends that the heart was gathering about the citadel of life every drop of the vital current, and must ultimately burst in the struggle to relieve itself. Declining the invitation of my friend to enter the house, I seated myself on a rustic bench beneath some birches, some rods below the house and out of sight of the mourners. It had evidently been a favorite retreat of her who was departed. Around the sides and back woodbines and evergreens had been tastefully intertwined, and wild rose bushes were thickly clustered all over the little hillocks behind. The view which it commanded of the scenery around was eminently beautiful. Below you the hill swept off toward the lake with a gentle descent, covered with the brightest greensward, and interspersed with frequent copses of large forest trees. Waters were unruffled by a single wave; and one little wooded island, just off the shore, seemed hung in mid air, and looked like a fairy resort of coolness and beauty. Beyond were the deep blue mountains, over which the shadows were flitting like winged messengers, while their broadly indented summits were bathed in a flood of purple light. It was one of those delicious evenings which occur only during the long droughts of midsummer, when the rapid evaporation from the bodies of water during the day gives fragrance and coolness to the atmosphere of the coming night, and softens the light which the sun throws over the landscape just before setting, in a mellowness and radiance which no words can describe. It was in sweet unison with my own feelings and with the burial scene. As the procession moved slowly round the side of the hill, preceded by twelve maidens of the age of the deceased, dressed in white, and carrying wreaths of white roses in their hands; as they passed on to the old burial-place, far up the ascent, with a slow and measured tread, over the grass-grown pathway, while the summons of the distant bell struck faintly on the ear; as they listened around the grave to the solemn words of their grey-haired pastor, and casting their fresh flowers upon the coffin, turned to retrace their steps; the whole was in such harmony with the spot, the hour, and the Saturday evening stillness, that it thrilled to the heart |