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558   Alice and Phebe Carey.

For friends supported not her parting soul,
And whisper'd words of comfort, kind and sweet,
When treading onward to that final goal,
Wher the still bridegroom waited for her feet;
Alone she walk'd, yet with a fearless tread,
Down to Death's chamber, and his bridal-bed.

Light In Darkness

Did we think of the light and sunshine,
Of the blessings left us still,
When we sit and ponder darkly
And Blindly o'er life's ill
How should we dispel the shadows
Of still and deep despair,
And lessen the weight of anguish
Which every heart must bear?

The clouds may rest on the present,
And sorrow on the days that are gone,
But no night is so utterly cheerless
That we may not look for the dawn;
And there is no human being 
With so wholly dark a lot,
But the heart, by turning the picture,
May find some sunny spot:

For, as in the days of winter,
When the snowdrifts whiten the hill,
Some birds in the air will flutter,
And warble to cheer us still;
So, if we would hark to the music,
Some hope with a starry wing,
In the days of our darkest sorrow,
Will sit in the heart and sing.

559   Alice and Phebe Carey.

Death Scene.

Dying, still slowly dying,
As the hours of the night rode by,
She had lain since the light of sunset
Was red on the evening sky: 
Till after the middle watches,
As we softly near her trod,
When her soul from its prison fetters
Was loosed by the hand of God.

One moment her pale lips trembled
With the triumph she might not tell,
As the sight of the life immortal
On her spirit'S vision fell;
Then the look of rapture faded,
And the beautiful smile was faint,
As that is some convent picture,
On the face of a dying saint.

And we felt in the lonesome midnight, 
As we sat by the silent dead,
What a light, on the path going downward,
The feet of the righteous shed;
When we thought how, with faith unshrinking
She am to the Jordan's tide,
And, taking the hand of the Savior
Went up on the heavenly side.
The End.