Page:Female Prose Writers of America.djvu/172
I saw, too, the monument which has been recently erected over the grave of Dr. Abeel, the Chinese missionary. I knew and loved him well, and yet my feelings, when I stood beside his grave, had not a tinge of sadness! Indeed, why should they have? He had fought the good fight, he had finished his course, he had kept the faith, and I knew that he was in actual possession of his crown of glory! It was, then, a time and a place for joy and for triumph, and not for mourning and despondency. The Christian hero had gone to his reward, was that a cause for sadness?
I have not emptied my heart of half its tide of feeling, but I must forbear; time would fail me, and perhaps your patience also, were I to attempt it. Have you ever noticed, in your Greenwood rambles, a deeply-shaded spot, most appropriately labelled “Twilight Dell?” ’Tis there I would like to lay my weary head, when the toils and cares of life are over! Next to a grave in the far-distant West, where some of my loved ones sleep, or in my own Southern home, where my Kindred lie, would I prefer one in the beautifully shaded Twilight Dell of Greenwood.