o one could tell exactly how, had fallen overboard. Being no
swimmer, and the water of icy coldness, he sank immediately, without
again coming to the surface. Strong arms were waiting to seize him, upon
rising, but the deep had closed over him.

I know not how it was, but the prostration of my poor mother seemed to
give me new strength to bear up under this terrible affliction. Oh! that
was a sad evening for us, and the birthday to which all had looked
forward with so much pleasure as the happiest of my life was to be the
saddest. Morning--it was Sunday--brought comparative calmness to my
mother. But she was broken down by the awful suddenness of the blow. She
wept over the thought that he had died without _her_ being near
him,--that there had been no opportunity for parting words,--that _she_
was not able to close his dying eyes. She could have borne it better, if
she had been permitted to speak to him, to hear him say farewell, before
death shut out the world from his view. Then there was the painful
anxiety as to recovering the body. It had sunk in deep water, in the
middle of the river, and it was uncertain how far the strong current
might have swept it away from the spot where the accident occurred. The
neighbors had already begun to search for it with drags, and all through
that gloomy Sunday had continued their labor without success; for they
were not watermen, and therefore knew little of the proper methods of
procedure.

Days passed away in this distressing uncertainty. Our pastor, Mr.
Seeley, missing Fred and Jane from Sunday-school, as well as myself from
the charge of my class, and learning the cause of our absence, came down
to see us. His consolations to my mother, his sympathy, his prayers,
revived and strengthened her. Finding that her immediate anxiety was
about the recovery of the body, he told her that the bodies of drowned
persons were seldom found without a reward being offered for them, and
that one must be promised in the present case. This suggestion brought
up the question of payment, and for the first time in our affliction it
was recollected that my father had always persisted in carrying in his
pocket-wallet all the money he had saved, and thus whatever he might
have accumulated was with him at the time of his death. Following,
nevertheless, the advice of our excellent pastor, a reward of fifty
dollars was advertised, and just one week from the fatal day the body
was brought to our now desol