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[414]

Being alone for a moment with Maud, she spoke one word: a little word that had meant “good-bye” between them in the nursery days.

So, in the morning of Monday, October 17, her spirit passed quietly on to God's keeping.

Those who were present at her funeral will not forget it. The flower-decked church, the mourning multitude, the white coffin borne high on the shoulders of eight stalwart grandsons, the words of age-long wisdom and beauty gathered into a parting tribute, the bugle sounding Taps, as she passed out in her last earthly triumph, the blind children singing round the grave on which the autumn sun shone with a final golden greeting.

We have told the story of our mother's life, possibly at too great length; but she herself told it in eight words.

“Tell me,” Maud asked her once, “what is the ideal aim of life?”

She paused a moment, and replied, dwelling thoughtfully on each word,--

“To learn, to teach, to serve, to enjoy!”

The end

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