Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/320

Rh no power over them. After two years of suffering, she died—if a good angel can die; and her grave is surrounded by memories of light.

The second belongs to the grave of a young man. He was an officer in the American army during the war in Texas, or Mexico, I do not exactly remember which. One day as he sate at the table with a comrade, he received an order to go to the commanding officer. In youthful insolence or pride, he said, “The deuce take me if I go!” or something of that kind. Nevertheless he went. The thoughtless expression, which had been overheard, was reported to the superior officer, who commanded that as a punishment, and for example's sake, he should be gagged for one or more days, I know not which. When the sentence was announced to the young man, he said, “From this time, I will never eat anything more. Nobody shall ever reproach me with having been gagged”

And he refused to take food. The superior officer, informed of his words and his conduct on arrest, repented of his barbarous and hasty command, and went himself to the young man to induce him to give up his resolve. But in vain. The young, determined soldier died of a wounded heart, and of hunger, within a week; to the inexpressibly bitter grief of his family, who were withheld from prosecuting, at law, the inconsiderate commander, merely by the mother of the dead—to whom the family of the other were nearly related—and by her saying, with truth:

“Revenge cannot restore to me my son!” Great sufferings have already consecrated Magnolia Cemetery as a resting-place.

Mrs. W. H. and myself made the journey to Sullivan's Island alone. It was pleasant to me to make this last excursion in South Carolina alone with her; and with her for the last time to feel the sea breezes in the palmetto and myrtle groves of the island. A steam-boat conveyed