ever on the family which sheltered the saintly HAMMOND in his persecutions, and produced her who left to the world this invaluable legacy! {89} In these books you have a religious library which will meet all your spiritual wants. Pray for me, as I shall not cease to pray for you—for _this_ is the way to remember friends that are far off; and now go, and the LORD be with thee!’ “But I had another parting of a very different kind to encounter—with my poor sister MARTHA. Since her separation from her lover, she had gone about her daily avocations with her usual, and even more than her usual cheerfulness and quiet alacrity. Indeed her eye sparkled with more brilliance, and her spirits rose to a higher pitch of excitement than I had ever before observed. She grew perceptibly thinner, but no alarm was thereby occasioned, as her colour was even heightened in brightness, and her mind seemed peaceful and happy. Yet I had watched her with more than common anxiety, and felt much alarmed for her state, though I could hardly assign the grounds of my fears. A few days before it was proposed that I should take my departure, she called me into her room after the rest of the family had retired to rest, and desired me to sit down by her side, with a seriousness of manner which seemed to show that she had some important communication to make. “‘Brother,’ said she, ‘we part soon; it may be sooner than you expect.’ “‘How so?’ said I. “‘You must listen to my tale. We have never talked about _him_ since we parted at Mr. Walker’s. I have never repented what I did then.’ “‘Oh, how nobly you acted, dear sister,’ said I, ‘and how little you seem to have felt the shock of such a parting. How I love you for your determination! You have never seen him since?’ “‘I saw him last night!’ “‘Indeed?’ “‘Yes—last night. He stood by my bed-side, looking most pale and ghastly; and reproached me with deserting him, and leaving him to his fate. He said that I might have saved him by converting him from his evil ways, but now on me must rest the consequences of his ruin, both in body and soul.’ “‘It must surely have been a troubled dream!’ “‘No, brother, it was a sad reality. I appeared to myself as wide awake as I am at this moment, and though my reason tells me that he _could_ not be there, I saw him with as sober a mind, and an eye as steady as I see you now!’ “‘And how do you explain this strange delusion?’ “‘Easily—I am DYING! Look at this hand,’ said she, holding up her taper fingers before the candle. I could distinctly see the flame through the transparent skin, and trace the blue fret-work of the veins, as though they had been traced with a lead pencil on a sheet of white paper. I saw that all was over!