And they joined in the mazy dance, and
spent the hours of night in joyous revelry. A sumptuous entertainment
was prepared, and everything provided to satisfy the votaries of
pleasure.
But as the lively music sounded from that splendid hall, it stole upon
the
"Cold, dull ear of death,"
for, but a few rods distant, lay a female, little passed the meridian
of life (who had lived in the same village, and trod in the pathway of
life with them many years), wrapped in the shroud of death, and next
day to be borne away to the tomb, and shut out forever from all the
scenes where she had once been an actress. But now she would look out
upon the world no more. Her eyes were closed in death, and her ear
heard not the wild music that was stealing through her otherwise
silent chamber.
All of earth had passed from her vision. Life, with its stern, cold
realities, or its light toned revelry, could awaken no response in her
inanimate form.
A brother had been summoned from a distant village to attend her
funeral. He had travelled, notwithstanding the inclemency of the
weather, and when the shades of twilight fell over the earth, he stood
by that dearly loved form. Memory brought back the past. That cold,
pulseless one was a child again, sporting by his side, prattling upon
his knee, and winning attention by the ten thousand witcheries of
childhood.
Then, with the rapidity of thought, blooming youth succeeded this age,
and she stood, blushing in maiden modesty, the gay young sister of
other days; and his heart was filled with sadness as he gazed upon her
stiff in the icy arms of death, and felt that she could no more return
his affection.
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