k dwelling with precisely the same dispositions, the same
friendships, and with the most perfect remembrance of the least as well
as the greatest events of his earthly existence? What a clear, what a
friendly light has not this circumstance diffused around the dark gates
of the tomb! It has united the two worlds! it has thrown a bridge over
the gloomy deep; it enables the drooping wanderer to approach it without
horror; it enables him to say to his friends on the evening of life,
'Good night!' with the same calmness with which he can speak those words
to them on the evening of the day."

An arm was thrown convulsively round Henrik, and the voice of his mother
whispered, in a tone of despair, to him, "You must not leave us, Henrik!
you must not!" and with these words she sunk unconscious on his breast.

From this evening Henrik never again introduced in the presence of his
mother a subject which was so painful to her. He sought rather to calm
and cheer her, and his sisters helped him truly in the same work. They
now had less desire than ever to leave home and to mingle in society
generally; yet notwithstanding they did so occasionally, because their
brother wished it, and it enabled them to have something to tell at
home, which could entertain and enliven both him and his mother. These
reports were generally made in Henrik's room, and how heartily did they
not laugh there! Ah! in a cordially united family, care can hardly take
firm footing there: if it come in for one moment, in the very next it
will be chased away! Eva appeared during this time to forget her own
trouble, that she also might be a flower in the garland of comfort and
tenderness which was bound around the favourite of the family; the Judge
too, tore himself more frequently than hitherto from his occupations,
and united himself to the family circle.

A more attractive sick chamber than Henrik's can hardly be imagined.
That he himself felt. Enfeebled by the influence of disease, his
beautiful eyes often became filled with tears from slight causes, and he
would exclaim "I am happy--too happy! What a blessedness to be able to
live! That is happiness! that is the summer of the soul! Even now, amid
my sufferings, I feel myself made through you so rich, so happy!" and
then he would stretch forth his hand to those of his mother or his
sisters, and press them to his lips or his bosom.

An interval of amendment occurred in Henrik's illness, and he suffered
much l