. The young envelope-makers . ong the gravestones. Thefirst which met her eye was completely over-grown with gray moss: only one line of the in-scription was legible on this; the figures andletters had been cleared out and blackened,—most likely by some person who had a taste forthe wonderful and curious on tombstones. Itran thus :—Aged 111 years. Euth paused and gazed. She well remem-bered how her grandmother used to talk of thevenerable dame who lay buried there, and torelate how she had outlived all her childrenand so was obliged to earn her own livelihood O going about the village selling
. The young envelope-makers . ong the gravestones. Thefirst which met her eye was completely over-grown with gray moss: only one line of the in-scription was legible on this; the figures andletters had been cleared out and blackened,—most likely by some person who had a taste forthe wonderful and curious on tombstones. Itran thus :—Aged 111 years. Euth paused and gazed. She well remem-bered how her grandmother used to talk of thevenerable dame who lay buried there, and torelate how she had outlived all her childrenand so was obliged to earn her own livelihood O going about the village selling eggs and poultry,long after she had seen the summer flowers andthe winter snows come and go a hundred times One hundred and eleven years! thought Euth. Poor woman ! what a load of trials and sorrowsshe must have had to carry with her to thegrave ! How thankful she must have been to restin it at last! It was not a natural thought for& young girl of sixteen; but it was she now turned her feet towards. Hutu and Martha in the Churchyard p. 111. THE YOUNG ENVELOPE-MAKERS. Ill her mothers grave. It was in a retired partof what still retained the name of the newchurchyard, being a piece of ground added tothe old one some years since. As she passedon she paused by an ancient tomb to pluck asprig from a willow-tree now in bloom, whichgrew within the iron rails by which it wassurrounded. The seed had probably beendropped by some bird, and, as the tomb was nowneglected, it had been suffered to grow untilat length it completely concealed the massivecarved stone-work and shot its brancheshigh and wide above and around. She pickedsprig after sprig, and at length, seeing a re-markably pretty one at the farther corner ofthe tomb, she went round to get that also. Inso doing she caught a glimpse of some person,sitting on a grave at a little distance. Shelooked again and saw that it wTas MarthaHarris! How odd in her to be sitting there!thought she. I will go and speak to h
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectchildrensstoriesengl
