Their Only Son, A Fine Lad
Of Fourteen, Had Died That Day Of The Cholera, And All Their Hopes
For The Future Were Buried In His Grave.
For his sake they had
sought a home in this far land; and here, at the very onset of
their new career, the fell disease had taken him from them for
ever - here, where, in such a crowd, the poor heart-broken mother
could not even indulge her natural grief!
"Ah, for a place where I might greet!" she said; "it would relieve
the burning weight at my heart. But with sae many strange eyes
glowering upon me, I tak' shame to mysel' to greet."
"Ah, Jeannie, my puir woman," said the husband, grasping her hand,
"ye maun bear up; 'tis God's will; an sinfu' creatures like us
mauna repine. But oh, madam," turning to me, "we have sair hearts
the day!"
Poor bereaved creatures, how deeply I commiserated their grief - how
I respected the poor father, in the stern efforts he made to
conceal from indifferent spectators the anguish that weighed upon
his mind! Tears are the best balm that can be applied to the
anguish of the heart. Religion teaches man to bear his sorrows with
becoming fortitude, but tears contribute largely both to soften and
to heal the wounds from whence they flow.
At Brockville we took in a party of ladies, which somewhat relieved
the monotony of the cabin, and I was amused by listening to their
lively prattle, and the little gossip with which they strove to
wile away the tedium of the voyage.
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