ntment in this happy valley. Then two little cherubs, just alike
as "two peas in a pod" came to us at dawn of day, like twin rays
from the rising sun, their blue eyes beaming with smiles which have
continued ever since.

We named them Ada and Ida: but were obliged to label them to tell
"which was which," and said label is essential for distinguishment to
this very day, though twenty-four bright summers have passed since the
sight of them first gladdened our hearts.

But almost with the sunbeams came the terrible cloud overspreading all
our lives. The mother had scarcely welcomed the twin buds of promise,
when she faded away like a flower and was

"Gone beyond the darksome river,
Only left us by the way;
Gone beyond the night forever,
Only gone to endless day;

Gone to meet the angel faces,
Where our lovely treasures are;
Gone awhile from our embraces,
Gone within the gates ajar."

There seemed to be no light left on earth; the sun was blotted out
forever,

Oh glory of our youth that so suddenly decays!
Oh crimson flush of morning that darkens as we gaze!
Oh breath of summer blossoms that on the restless air
Scatters a moment's sweetness, and flies we know not where!

"A boat at midnight sent alone
To drift upon the moonless sea;
A lute whose leading chord is gone;
A wounded bird that hath but one
Imperfect wing to soar upon,
Are like me
Oh loved one, without thee;"

but the pitiful wailings of the twin girl babies called me back to
earth again, and I took up the cares of existence, though they seemed
greater than I could bear.

The largest church in the village was filled to overflowing with
sincere mourners, for the sweet face of the departed had brought
good cheer into many darkened households in our town. All sectarian
barriers were for the time burned away by the flame of sympathy, and
wonderful to tell, the Universalist clergyman who married us was
allowed to pronounce the eulogy in an orthodox Congregational church.

When the organ pealed the requiem and the choir chanted the ever dear
words of the hymn--

"Only waiting till the shadows are a little longer grown,"

and closing with the triumphant expression of a deathless faith; it
required but a little imagination to see the light streaming through
the open door of heaven, and to hear the responses of the angel choir
from the great cathedral on high, and we wended our homeward way
thin