husband, companion, protector, was
gone: a man of superior mind, great taste, warm affection, and
domestic habits. She was left with three daughters, the eldest of whom
was not over five years of age, and expecting an increase of her
infant charge. Of temporal property she possessed very little: she was
at a distance from her father's house: the widow and the fatherless
were in a foreign land. The change in her circumstances was as sudden
as it was great.

That sympathizing heart with which she was accustomed to receive
and return the confidence of unbounded friendship, and thus, by
reciprocal communion, to alleviate the trials and enrich the
enjoyments of life, was chilled in death. All the pleasing plans, all
the cherished prospects of future settlement in life were cut off in a
moment. While sinking into a softened indifference to the world, in
the contemplation of her severe loss, she was, on the other hand,
roused into exertion for the sustenance and support of her young
family, whose earthly dependence was now necessarily upon her.

Not satisfied with the custom of the island, in burying so soon
after life is extinct, her uneasiness became so great that her friends
judged it prudent to have her husband's grave opened, to convince her
that no symptoms of returning life had been exhibited there. The
fidelity of her heart was now as strongly marked as her tenderness.
She dressed herself in the habiliments of a widow, and determined
never to lay them aside. This she strictly adhered to, and rejected
every overture afterwards made to her of again entering into the
married state. She breathed the feelings of her heart in a little
poem, in which she dedicated herself to her God as a widow indeed.

On examining into the state of her husband's affairs, she
discovered that there remained not quite two hundred pounds sterling
in his agent's hands.

These circumstances afforded an opportunity for the display of
the purity of Mrs. Graham's principles, and her rigid adherence to the
commandments of her God in every situation.

It was proposed to her, and urged with much argument, to sell the
two Indian girls, her late husband's property; but no considerations
of interest or necessity could prevail upon her thus to dispose of
immortal beings, the work of her heavenly Father's hand. One of these
girls accompanied her to Scotland, where she was married; and the
other died in Antigua, leaving an affec