Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/252

Rh in her blonde countenance, is the most charming of young women, and her little girl is one of those loveable little creatures, which not merely mother and grandmother, but every stranger even, must regard as quite out of the common way, gifted even while in the cradle with unusual powers and more than earthly grace. When in the morning I saw the young mother standing with her little child in her arms, and embraced by her mother—that little groupe standing quietly thus in the sunlit room, all three reposing happily in each other's love—I could not but think. Why do I seek for the temple of the sun shining aloft over earth? Is not each sunflower a temple more beautiful than that of Peru or of Solomon? And these people who love and who worship in spirit and in truth, are not they true sunflowers—the temple of the sun upon earth?

The male portion of the family consists for the present of the young son of the house, and this young lady's husband.

October.—I have just returned from church. The minister preached a sermon strongly condemnatory of the gentlemen of the West. All his hope was in the ladies, and he commended their activity in the Western country. To this not very reasonable and not very judicious sermon succeeded the Lord's Supper, silent, holy, sanctifying, pouring its gracious wine into the weak, faulty, male communicants with the Word—not the word of man; with power—not the power of man.

After divine service, the Sunday-scholars assembled, and young and handsome ladies instructed each her class of poor children. And how maternally they did it, and how well, especially my young hostess, Mrs. D., whom I could not but observe with the most heartfelt pleasure in the exercise of her maternal vocation.

The weather was bright and sunny, although cold, and I wished to avail myself of the afternoon for an excursion