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Rh The physician, after long putting off, gives the silent
 * and terrible look for an answer,

The children come hurried and weeping, and the
 * brothers and sisters are sent for,

Medicines stand unused on the shelf—(the camphor-smell
 * has long pervaded the rooms,)

The faithful hand of the living does not desert
 * the hand of the dying,

The twitching lips press lightly on the forehead of
 * the dying,

The breath ceases, and the pulse of the heart ceases, The corpse stretches on the bed, and the living look
 * upon it,

It is palpable as the living are palpable.

The living look upon the corpse with their eye-sight, But without eye-sight lingers a different living, and
 * looks curiously on the corpse.

To think that the rivers will flow, and the snow fall,
 * and fruits ripen, and act upon others as upon
 * us now—yet not act upon us!

To think of all these wonders of city and country,
 * and others taking great interest in them—and
 * we taking no interest in them!

To think how eager we are in building our houses! To think others shall be just as eager, and we quite
 * indifferent!

I see one building the house that serves him a few
 * years, or seventy or eighty years at most,

I see one building the house that serves him longer
 * than that.