"I just think," said another one, "that she has been the making of my Lucy. She's just wrapped up in Miss Annette, thinks the sun rises and sets in her." Old mothers whose wants had been relieved, came with the children and younger men too, to celebrate Annette's 31st birthday. Happy and smiling, like one who had passed through suffering into peace she stood, the beloved friend of old and young, when suddenly she heard a footstep on the veranda which sent the blood bounding in swift currents back to her heart and left her cheek very pale. It was years since she had heard the welcome rebound of that step, but it seemed as familiar to her as the voice of a loved and long lost friend, or a precious household word, and before her stood, with slightly bowed form and hair tinged with gray, Luzerne. Purified through suffering, which to him had been an evangel of good, he had come to claim the love of his spirit. He had come not to separate her from her cherished life work, but to help her in uplifting and helping those among whom her lot was cast as a holy benediction, and so after years of trial and pain, their souls had met at last, strengthened by duty, purified by that faith which works by love, and fitted for life's highest and holiest truths. And now, in conclusion, permit me to say under the guise of fiction, I have essayed to weave a story which I hope will subserve a deeper purpose than the mere amusement of the hour, that it will quicken and invigorate human hearts and not fail to impart a lesson of usefulness and value. Notes 1. In the original, this sentence reads: "After she became a wife and mother, instead of becoming entirely absorbed in a round of household cares and duties, and she often said, that the moment the crown of motherhood fell upon her how that she had poured a new interest in the welfare of her race." 2. The original reads "But Mr. Thompson." 3. The original reads "but during her short sojourn in the South." 4. In the original this sentence reads: "Young men anxious for places in the gift of government found that by winking at Frank Miller's vices and conforming to the demoralizing customs of his place, were the passports to political favors, and lacking moral stamina, hushed their consciences and became partakers of his sins." 5. The original reads "Mrs. Larking." 6. The original reads "said Mrs. Larkins, seating herself beside Mrs. Larking." 7. The original reads "continued Mr. Slocum." 8. The original reads "'Isn't your name Benny?'" 9. The original reads "said Charley Hastings." 10. The original reads "scarcely on intellect." 11. The original reads "expensive views." 12. The original reads "Mrs. Harcourt." 13. The original reads "Mrs. Hanson." 14. The original reads "Mr. Thomas." 15. The original reads "Tom Hanson." End of Project Gutenberg's Trial and Triumph, by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper