Page:How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon.djvu/109

Rh daughter was permitted to select a hymn for the family worship. She made a selection of the old-time favorite:

"ROCK OF AGES." "While I draw this fleeting breath, When my eyelids close in death; When I rise to worlds unknown, And behold Thee on Thy Throne; Rock of ages cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee."

When the Indians came in for the afternoon service Dr. Whitman turned to the same hymn and the baby girl again with her sweet voice joined in the singing. Says Mrs. Whitman:

""This was the last we heard her sing. Little did we think that her young life was so fleeting or that those sparkling eyes would so soon be closed in death, and her spirit rise to worlds unknown to behold on His Throne of glory Him who said: 'I will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee.'""

They got water for the household use from the running river, and the two little tin cups were found on the edge of the water. An old Indian dived in and soon brought out the body, but life was extinct.

The profoundly Christian character of the mother is revealed in every note of the sad event.

She writes: "Lord, it is right; it is right. She is not mine, but thine; she was only lent to