Little Nells Funeral

And now the bell, — the bell She had so often heard by night and day   And listened to with solemn pleasure,         E'en as a living voice, — Rung its remorseless toll for her,   So young, so beautiful, so good.   Decrepit age, and vigorous life,

And blooming youth, and helpless infancy,   Poured forth, — on crutches, in the pride of strength         And health, in the full blush         Of promise, the mere dawn of life, — To gather round her tomb.

Old men were there,         Whose eyes were dim         And senses failing, — Grandames, who might have died ten years ago,

And still been old, — the deaf, the blind, the lame,         The palsied,

The living dead in many shapes and forms,

To see the closing of this early grave.   What was the death it would shut in,

To that which still could crawl and keep above it!

Along the crowded path they bore her now;         Pure as the new fallen snow That covered it; whose day on earth         Had been as fleeting.

Under that porch, where she had sat when Heaven In mercy brought her to that peaceful spot,   She passed again, and the old church   Received her in its quiet shade.      They carried her to one old nook,

Where she had many and many a time sat musing,   And laid their burden softly on the pavement.            The light streamed on it through The colored window, — a window where the boughs         Of trees were ever rustling      In the summer, and where the birds            Sang sweetly all day long.