Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1883 — They Are Not Strangers, Mamma. [ARTICLE]

They Are Not Strangers, Mamma.

Not-longAgoXstood by the death bed of a little girl. From her birth she had been afraid of death. Every fiber jef her body and sonl recoiled from the thought of it. “Don’t let me die,” she said, “don’t let me die. Hold me fast. DwH oaf wfVVenny, ” I aaid, have two little frothers in ~the HIBB A will I yon and take dare of yoni “’'• But she cried *T>on’t let tot go; they are strangers over there. ” She was a little country girl, strong-limbed, fleet of foot, tanned in the faoe; she was raised on the frontier; the fields were her home. In vain we tried to reconcile her to the death that was inevitable. “Hold me fast, ” she cried, “don’t let me go.” But even as she was pleading her little hands relaxed their clinging hold thMrSa l^tey ware filled with the light of divine recognition. They saw something plainly that we could not see, and they grew brighter, and her little hand quivered in eagerness to go where strange portals had opened upon her astonished vision. Bfit even in that supreme moment she did not forget to leave a word of comfort for those who would gladly have died in her place. “Mamma,” she was saying, “mamma, they are not strangers, lam not afraid. ” And every instant the light burtied more £lo*iously in her blue eyes, till at last it seethed as if her soul leaped forth upon ita- radiant waves, and in that moment her" 1 trembling form relapsed, among its pillows and she was gone,— Woman’s ' World. ‘ t#