While he sat thus in his waking dream, he looked
fixedly at the locket and the blue thread which tied together those
golden rays of a summer sun, now all set and vanished and gone, but
which was once the morning light of all his promised days; and as his
eyes, full of waking dreams, fell on the fire again, a handsome young
woman seemed to come forth from between the brands, and the locks of her
hair floated out and turned into boys and girls, of various ages, from
babyhood to youth; all looking somewhat like him and also like the
fair young woman. But the brand rolled over, and they all vanished in a
little puff of smoke.
Aunt Kindly sat at the table reading the Bible. I don't know why she
read the Gospels, for she knew them all four by heart, and could repeat
them from end to end. But Sunday night, when none of the neighbors were
there, and she and Nathan were all alone, she took her mother's great
squared Bible and read therein. This night she had been reading,
in chapter xxxi. of Proverbs, the character of a noble woman; and,
finishing the account, turned and read the 28th verse a second time,--
_"Her children rise up and call her blessed.
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