ous mother, who taught me evil instead of good;' or, 'I
had no mother, to plant in my childhood's heart the fear of God and
the love of virtue.'

Here, to me, to-night, in grateful memory, comes the Sabbath morning
in the garden at the home of my childhood, more than sixty years ago,
when this dead mother here sleeping pointed to the drunken man passing
on the highway, and, kindly looking up into my face, asked me to look
at him, and, when he had passed out of sight, said: "My child, will
you here, this beautiful morning of God's day, promise your mother
that you will not drink one drop of ardent spirits until you are
twenty-one years of age? You are so full of animal spirits, I fear,
should you touch it at all, that you will come to drink to excess, and
fill a drunkard's grave before you shall have passed half the days
allotted to man's life." I see that pleading face, those soft brown
eyes to-night, as they looked from where she was seated into my face;
I see the soft smile of satisfaction, as it came up from her heart and
illumined her features, when I lifted up my hand and made the promise!
And, oh, shall I ever forget the thrill which gladdened my heart when
she rose up and kissed me, and murmured so gently, so tenderly, so
full of hope and confidence: "I know you will keep it, my child." That
promise is a holy memory! It was kept with sacred fidelity.

Angel of love and light--my mother--look down upon thy child here
to-night, and for the last time by thy grave, with whitened head and
tottering step, and see if I have ever departed from the way you
taught me to go! Soon I shall be with you.

MY WORK IS OVER, MY TASK IS DONE!

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMORIES OF FIFTY YEARS***

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