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, for swelling hearts to give room, for voiceless benedictions to cover!

A youth, or maiden, stretches out a hand, with heart within, and lo! another link is clasped by a wedding ring, upon the kin-bound chain, and nuptial gifts, and festive gatherings, and fond congratulations greet its admission!

The angel of Death descends, and singles out the purest link, and softly bears it to a home invisible. Tears of agony must flow, and grief-wrung hearts must ache; but tears that fall from many eyes, weeping together, lose their bitterness; and heavy hearts that lean on on one another find their load of sorrow lightened.

Other, less mournful, partings come; some of the close-knit band must make their homes on foreign shores; but ocean cables are less strong and true than bonds of union that no seas can sever; and rapture grows out of the very pangs of absence, when wanderers return, with tiny links hanging, like diamond pendants, from their own.

Birth, marriage, death, parting, meeting; these are but trite and every-day events, yet through the golden links of kindred they send a current of emotion that stirs many hearts, and makes epochs in many lives! O, keep the links pure and bright, however wide the chain, and burdens of sorrow will be lessened, because shared, and sources of joy will swell in number because they reach as far as blood extends!