and tree reminded
him of Miss Amaryllis. And he'd walk down the gyarden lookin' at her
rose-bushes and talkin' to himself, and every time a rose bloomed,
he'd gether it and put it on her grave. And one mornin', about the
last o' May, he told one o' the slaves to saddle his horse, and when
they asked him where he was goin', he said: 'I'm going to find her. I
found her once, and I can find her again.'

"They tried to reason with him, but they might as well 'a' talked to
the air. He rode off like mad, and the next folks heard of him, he was
'way off yonder in some foreign country; and after a while the news
come that he'd been found dead in his bed. Whether he grieved himself
to death or whether he took his own life nobody ever knew. I ricollect
how glad I was when I heard about it, for I knew he'd found Miss
Amaryllis.

"But there's one thing, child, that troubles me and always has
troubled me, especially since Abram died. You know that text that says
there's neither marryin' nor givin' in marriage in heaven, but we'll
all be like the angels? I've thought and thought about that text, but
I can't see how a man and a woman that's loved each other and lived
together as husband and wife for a lifetime in this world can ever be
anything but husband and wife, no matter what other world they go to
nor how long death's kept 'em parted from each other; and when death
comes between 'em at the very beginnin', it looks like they ought to
have their happiness in heaven. I know it's wrong to go against the
words o' the Bible, and yet I can't help hopin' and trustin' that
somehow or other Hamilton Schuyler found his wife and the little child
that never drew a breath in this world; for that was all the heaven he
wanted, and it looks like he had a right to it."

Does it call for laughter or for tears, this splendid audacity of the
soul that gives us strength to stand among the wrecks of human life
and in the face of inexorable law plead our right to love and
happiness? And yet, is not inexorable law, but another name for the
eternal justice that measures out to every man his just deserts? And
who but the fool dare say that eternal justice is but a dream?

For "now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of
these is love." And if faith and hope fail not, surely the love that
is stronger than death shall one day find its own, and hold its own
through all eternity.

IV

AUNT JANE GOES A-VISITING

[Illus