CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE LAST NIGHT WITH THE DEAD.
How awful is the presence of the dead!
The hours rebuked, stand silent at their side;
Passions are hushed before that stern repose;
Two, and two only, sad exceptions share—
Sorrow and love,—and these are paramount.
How deep the sorrow, and how strong the love!
Seeming as utterly unfelt before.
Ah! parting tries their depths. At once arise
Affection's treasures, never dreamed till then.
Death teaches heavy lessons, hard to bear;
And most it teaches us what we have lost,
In losing those who loved us.
Henrietta crowded a life's suffering into the next week. There is need of change, even with the dead; and each of the mournful rites preceding interment brought on a frantic outburst of sorrow. The placing the body in the coffin was a dreadful struggle; but when it
