Silas K. Hocking

“ After her last look at Benny, she was never seen to open her eyes again, but gradually sank to rest.
So fades a summer's cloud away,
⁠So sinks the gale when storms are o'er,
So gently shuts the eye of day,
⁠So dies a wave along the shore.
Two days after, Joe and Benny went together to the Infirmary. But they were too late: the pure spirit had gone to God, and the little tired feet were for ever at rest.
"Cannot we see her?" said Benny. ”

“ But Joe was too troubled to talk. Like granny, he had known for months what was coming, but it had come suddenly, and in a way that he had not expected, and the old man, as he afterwards expressed it, was "struck all of a heap."
Benny waited for some time, but finding Joe was not inclined to talk, he made his way home, leaving the old man gazing into the fire, with a vacant look in his eyes and a look of pain upon his face.
No one ever knew what the old man suffered that night. ”

“ The smile that had so long flickered over her face like firelight on a wall, now settled into a look of deep content. No murmur ever escaped her lips, not even a sigh; now and then her lips moved as if in prayer, that was all. ”