earn that
bye and bye.

During all the years of my residence in Montreal, Mr. Baynard had
enjoyed uninterrupted health, but he was now seized with a sudden and
alarming illness; his disease was brain fever in its most violent form.
His physician found it impossible to break up the fever, and with his
afflicted family I anxiously awaited the result. A deep gloom
overshadowed the dwelling, the family and servants moved with noiseless
steps and hushed voices through the silent apartments. He was delirious
most of the time. The doctor often tried to prevail upon Mrs. Baynard to
leave him to the care of some other member of the family and seek rest,
but she could not think of leaving his bedside even for a short time,
and only did so when rest was an absolute necessity. The two daughters
had been absent at school for two years, and just at this time they
returned to their home, having finished their term of study, and they
were almost heart-broken thus to find their father stretched upon a bed
of sickness, and could not but entertain fears as to the result. All my
attention during the day was required at the store, as the whole
oversight of the extensive establishment devolved upon me.

The days that Mr. Baynard lay prostrated by suffering passed wearily by:
the frequent visits of the physician, the perpetual silence, and the air
of gloom which prevailed through the dwelling, told but too plainly that
there was sorrow and suffering within its walls. His wife would often
bend over the suffering form of her husband, and her tears would fall
fast while he still lay unconscious of her presence or watchful care;
and she feared he might in this state pass away and leave no token of
recognition or remembrance. At length the time allotted for the disease
to run its course arrived. This time had been anxiously waited for by
the physician, and with much greater anxiety, by his sorrowing family.
On the night of the crisis of the disorder, Mr. Baynard was so extremely
weak that the question of life and death was evenly balanced, and it was
hard to separate probabilities of the one from the other. Mrs. Baynard
requested that I would not return to the place of business after tea,
but remain with them. The physician never left the room during all that
night; and O! what a long and dreary night it was: the house was silent
as a tomb, even the ticking of the watch which lay upon the stand seemed
too loud. Finally the breathing of the sick m