on the steps of the altar. She was supported by an humble
friend, who was endeavoring to comfort her. A few of the
neighboring poor had joined the train, and some children of
the village were running hand in hand, now shouting with un-
thinking mirth, and now pausing to gaze, with childish
curiosity, on the grief of the mourner.

As the funeral train approached the grave, the parson
issued from the church porch, arrayed in the surplice, with
prayer-book in hand, and attended by the clerk. The service,
however, was a mere act of charity. The deceased had been
destitute, and the survivor was penniless. It was shuffled
through, therefore, in form, but coldly and unfeelingly. The
well-fed priest moved but a few steps from the church door;
his voice could scarcely be heard at the grave; and never
did I hear the funeral service, that sublime and touching
ceremony, turned into such a frigid mummery of words.

I approached the grave. The coffin was placed on the
ground. On it were inscribed the name and age of the
deceased -- "George Somers, aged 26 years." The poor
mother had been assisted to kneel down at the head of it.
Her withered hands were clasped, as if in prayer; but I could
perceive, by a feeble rocking of the body, and a convulsive
motion of the lips, that she was gazing on the last relics of her
son with the yearnings of a mother's heart.

Preparations were made to deposit the coffin in the earth.
There was that bustling stir, which breaks so harshly on the
feelings of grief and affection: directions given in the cold
tones of business; the striking of spades into sand and gravel;
which, at the grave of those we love, is of all sounds the most
withering. The bustle around seemed to waken the mother
from a wretched reverie. She raised her glazed eyes, and
looked about with a faint wildness. As the men approached
with cords to lower the coffin into the grave, she wrung her
hands and broke into an agony of grief. The poor woman
who attended her, took her by the arm, endeavoring to raise
her from the earth, and to whisper something like consola-

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