nly
daughter of the Rev. Ambrose Eveleth. The editor of this paper returns
his acknowledgments for a bountiful slice of the wedding-cake. May their
shadows never be less!"

Not many weeks after this appeared the following:

"Died in this place, on the 28th instant, the venerable Lemuel Hurlbut,
M. D., at the great age of XCVI years.

"'With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.'"

Myrtle recalled his kind care of her in her illness, and paid the
tribute of a sigh to his memory,--there was nothing in a death like his
to call for any aching regret.

The usual routine of small occurrences was duly recorded in the village
paper for some weeks longer, when she was startled and shocked by
receiving a number containing the following paragraph:

CALAMITOUS ACCIDENT

"It is known to our readers that the steeple of the old meeting-house
was struck by lightning about a month ago. The frame of the building was
a good deal jarred by the shock, but no danger was apprehended from the
injury it had received. On Sunday last the congregation came together
as usual. The Rev. Mr. Stoker was alone m the pulpit, the Rev. Doctor
Pemberton having been detained by slight indisposition. The sermon was
from the text, 'The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid.' (Isaiah xi. 6.) The pastor described the
millennium as--the reign of love and peace, in eloquent and impressive
language. He was in the midst of the prayer which follows the sermon,
and had jest put up a petition that the spirit of affection and faith
and trust might grow up and prevail among the flock of which he was the
shepherd, more especially those dear lambs whom he gathered with his
arm, and carried in his bosom, when the old sounding-board, which had
hung safely for nearly a century,--loosened, no doubt by the bolt which
had fallen on the church,--broke from its fastenings, and fell with
a loud crash upon the pulpit, crushing the Rev. Mr. Stoker under its
ruins. The scene that followed beggars description. Cries and shrieks
resounded through the horse. Two or three young women fainted entirely
away. Mr. Penhallow, Deacon Rumrill, Gifted Hopkins, Esq., and others,
came forward immediately, and after much effort succeeded in removing
the wreck of the sounding-board, and extricating their unfortunate
pastor. He was not fatally injured, it is hoped; but, sad to relate, he
received such a violen