Page:Over the river, and other poems.djvu/31

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The whole poem bears witness to the happiness of her married life.

Nothing more needs to be said of her life, except to refer briefly to her last days. Mrs. C. P. Fairbanks, an intimate friend of Mrs. Wakefield, wrote to me, a few weeks after her decease, stating some items of interest: " She did not expect to get well, but she said nothing about the future. The day she died she seemed very cheerful. After she could not speak, she frequently smiled. Her sister asked her if it was her happy thoughts that made her smile so often. She bowed to her, and looked at her and smiled, so that her sister was fully satisfied. No one who has known her for the last few years has any doubts but she was a Christian. . . . You know we always called her very plain ; but in death her face was beautiful, and still she looked perfectly natural. I never can understand how it could be. On her pale brow, with reverent hands and tearful eyes, I twined the laurel wreath, and folded the 'pulseless hands,' and gently laid her down for that dreamless sleep which knows no waking, more beautiful in death than ever I had seen her in life, and to-day I mourn her loss as the dearest friend I ever