to be pitied. She can find
intellectual affinities that will ease the irksomeness of her situation.
But to be cast on a desert isle with a being, no matter how good, who is
incapable of feeling with you the eternal mystery of the encircling tides;
who can only stare when you speak of the moaning lullaby of the restless
sea; who knows not the glory of the sunrise, and feels no thrill when the
breakers dash themselves into foam, or the moonlight dances on the
phosphorescent waves--ah, that is indeed exile! Loneliness is not in being
alone, for then ministering spirits come to soothe and bless--loneliness
is to endure the presence of one who does not understand.

And so this finely organized, receptive, aspiring woman, through the
exercise of a will that seemed masculine in its strength, found her feet
mired in quicksand. She struggled to free herself, and every effort only
sank her deeper. The relentless environment only held her with firmer
clutch.

She thirsted for knowledge, for sweet music, for beauty, for sympathy, for
attainment. She had a heart-hunger that none about her understood. She
strove for better things. She prayed to God, but the heavens were as
brass; she cried aloud, and the only answer was the throbbing of her
restless heart.

In this condition, a son was born to her. They called his name Alexander
Hamilton. This child was heir to all his mother's splendid ambitions. Her
lack of opportunity was his blessing; for the stifled aspirations of her
soul charged his being with a strong man's desires, and all the mother's
silken, unswerving will was woven through his nature. He was to surmount
obstacles that she could not overcome, and to tread under his feet
difficulties that to her were invincible.

The prayer of her heart was answered, but not in the way she expected. God
listened to her after all; for every earnest prayer has its answer, and
not a sincere desire of the heart but somewhere will find its
gratification.

But earth's buffets were too severe for the brave young woman; the forces
in league against her were more than she could withstand, and before her
boy was out of baby dresses she gave up the struggle, and went to her long
rest, soothed only by the thought that, although she had sorely blundered,
she yet had done her work as best she could.

* * * * *

At his mother's death, we find Alexander Hamilton taken in charge by
certain mystical kinsmen. Evidently