Eighty-five years, thought I, as my eye rested upon the figures
indicating her age, what a long, long life! and yet she often said that,
in looking back over her long life, it only seemed like a short troubled
dream; but it is all past now, and she rests in peace. We sat long at
the grave and talked of the loved one, now sleeping beneath that grassy
mound; till the deepening twilight hastened our departure. I could not
check the tears which coursed freely down my cheeks when I turned away
from the grave. Seated around the fireside that evening we talked of the
coming morrow when I was to leave them for an indefinite time, and they
both spoke of how doubly lonely the house would seem when I should be
gone. It hardly seemed to me that the aunt I was leaving was the same I
had found there, so softened and kind had she become. "It's not my way,"
said she, "to make many words; you have been a good, obedient boy Walter,
and I am sorry, that you must leave us, but we could not expect to keep
you always. Always do as you have done here, and you will get along, go
where you will; always look upon this house as a home, and if you ever
stand in need of a friend remember you have an Aunt Lucinda, who, if she
does fret and scold sometimes, has learned to love you very dearly, and
that is all I am going to say about it.
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