Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/379

Rh We drove to the burial-place amid thunder and heavy rain. But just as we alighted from the carriages, and the coffin was lowered to the earth beneath the shadowy trees, the silvery sun burst forth from the clouds and illumined most splendidly the silent scene, the yet descending drops, the beautiful trees, and continued to shine the whole time during an address from one of the elders of the company (which was as dry and prosaic as the sunshine was warm and poetic), and until the coffin was laid in the earth.

It is very singular, but precisely the same occurrence is said to have taken place at Mary's interment; the same funeral procession amid the rain, the same splendid sunshine by the grave. Are such merely accidental? The two young sisters partake of the same grave beneath the same sheltering tree, as they partook of the same life, joys, and sorrows, and their poetical sister-in-law may sing of them:—

Mrs. E. T. has great poetical talent, especially for ballads and romances. Two of her small ballads are the prettiest I know. Her husband is an agreeable man, of very cultivated mind, with all that feeling for the public well-being which distinguishes the American. He himself is a celebrated dentist, and a member of an association of dentists into which he is now endeavouring to introduce so liberal a spirit, that all beginners and imperfect practitioners may be admitted free of cost to the lectures and experiments of the association, and to the use of their instruments, so that the inferior members of the profession may be elevated by the influence and ready co-operation of the higher. Mr. T. delivers lectures every week gratis to young practitioners. “Levelling upwards” is the impelling principle also with him, and he has written an