tic incident occurred that led to the
writing of her most famous hymn.

There being no place in her crowded home where she might find opportunity
for a few moments of quiet prayer and meditation, she would steal away at
twilight to the edge of a neighboring estate, where there was a
magnificent home surrounded by a beautiful garden.

"As there was seldom any one passing that way after dark," she afterwards
wrote, "I felt quite retired and alone with God. I often walked quite up
to that beautiful garden ... and felt that I could have the privilege of
those few moments of uninterrupted communion with God without encroaching
upon any one."

But her movements had been watched, and one day the lady of the mansion
turned on her in the presence of others and rudely demanded: "Mrs. Brown,
why do you come up at evening so near our house, and then go back without
coming in? If you want anything, why don't you come in and ask for it?"

Mrs. Brown tells how she went home, crushed in spirit. "After my children
were all in bed, except my baby," she continues, "I sat down in the
kitchen, with my child in my arms, when the grief of my heart burst forth
in a flood of tears. I took pen and paper, and gave vent to my oppressed
heart in what I called 'My Apology for my Twilight Rambles, addressed to
a Lady.'" The "Apology," which was sent to the woman who had so cruelly
wounded her began with the lines:

Yes, when the toilsome day is gone,
And night, with banners gray,
Steals silently the glade along
In twilight's soft array.

Then continued the beautiful verses of her now famous "Twilight Hymn:"

I love to steal awhile away
From little ones and care,
And spend the hours of setting day
In gratitude and prayer.

Seven years later, when Dr. Nettleton was preparing his volume of
"Village Hymns," he was told that Mrs. Brown had written some verses. At
his request she brought forth her "Twilight Hymn" and three other lyrics,
and they were promptly given a place in the collection. Only a few slight
changes were made in the lines of the "Twilight Hymn," including the
second line, which was made to read "From every cumbering care," and the
fourth line, which was changed to "In humble, grateful prayer." Four
stanzas were omitted, otherwise the hymn remains almost exactly in the
form of the "Apology."

One of the omitted stanzas reveals a beautiful Christian attitude toward
death. Mrs. Brown wrote