m. All the time while listening to her
remarks, and deeply interested in every one she made, the strong desire
was in my heart to speak to her of her works, of my appreciation of
their great usefulness, and how God had blessed her in permitting her to
do so much to benefit others. I longed to say to her, "O had you only
written the books for the little ones, 'Little Susy's Six Birthdays,'
and its companions, it would have been well worth living for! had
you never written anything but 'The Flower of the Family,' it were
a blessing for you to have lived! And 'Stepping Heavenward'--what a
privilege to have lived to write only that volume!" I could scarcely
refrain from pouring out before her the thoughts which warmed my heart,
but I had been told that she preferred not to be spoken to of her works,
and I refrained. Only once, when we were alone, I said, with some
emotion, "I am so glad to have seen you; it was because _you_ were here
that I wished to come to this village; this was the strong attraction."
... Thus I parted from her. I shall not look upon her again until the
day when "those who sleep in Jesus shall God bring with Him."

APPENDIX

A.

The allusion is to a young officer of the navy, James Swan Thatcher--a
grandson of General Knox, the friend of Washington, and a younger
brother of Lieutenant, afterwards the gallant Rear Admiral, Henry Knox
Thatcher. He had become deeply interested in Miss Payson, and at length
solicited her hand. The story of his hopeless attachment to her, as
disclosed after his death, is most touching. He would spend hours
together late into the night in walking about the house, which, to
borrow his brother's expression, "his love had placed on holy ground."
He was a young man of singular purity and nobleness of character--"one
of a thousand," to use her own words--and, although she could not accept
him as a lover, she cherished for him a very cordial friendship. Not
long after, he was lost at sea. In later years she often referred to him
and his tragical end with the tenderest feeling. The following is an
extract from a letter of Rear Admiral Thatcher to her husband, written
several months after her death and shortly before his own:

I have read with great interest your reference to my dear and only
brother, James Swan Thatcher. It carried me back to one of the saddest
afflictions of my life. We had both been stationed at Portland for the
purpose of recruiting some of the hardy