mer shook
her head with a slow, sweet smile.

"My last chapter must be finished this evening, child," she said,
gently yet firmly; "after that I shall please you all by taking a long,
long rest."

Persuasion seemed useless; and the midnight hour found Aunt Judith busy
at her desk, filling up page after page with those wonderful thoughts
of hers.

Aunt Debby could not rest that night. Something in Miss Latimer's
manner and appearance had awed and frightened her, driving the sleep
from her little bright eyes and chilling her heart with a vague,
undefined sense of fear. At length, in the middle of the night, she
rose, unable to quell the uneasy thoughts which haunted her, and
stealing softly downstairs, opened the door of her sister's sanctum and
looked in. The lamp had burned low in the socket, and was casting a
sickly gleam over all; the fire had died out, and the gray-white ashes
gave a dreary, deserted appearance to the room. A great hush brooded
around; and yet not so awful was that intense stillness as the solemn
calm which seemed to infold the quiet figure sitting so silently in the
midst.

Aunt Judith sat before her desk, her head bent slightly forward on her
hands. There was nothing unnatural or alarming in the position, but an
awful dread stole into Miss Deborah's heart and caused it to beat with
a wild fear.

"Judith!" she called tremblingly; but the quiet figure never stirred,
and no response came from the pallid lips. Aunt Debby flashed the
light of her candle full on Miss Latimer, and then started back with an
exceeding bitter cry, for the face on which the light shone so clearly
was white and rigid in death. The eyes, wide-open, were fixed on the
sheets of manuscript before her, as if she had been earnestly studying
the closing words; and the face, though white with the pallor of the
dead, still retained its own sweet expression. Looking down at the
written sheets, Aunt Debby noticed the last chapter was finished, and
knew Aunt Judith's life-work had ended with it.

[Illustration: The eyes, wide open, were fixed on the sheets of
manuscript before her.]

"My last chapter must be written to-night, child; after that I shall
please you all by taking a long, long rest." How those words rung in
Miss Deborah's ears as she stood gazing on that silent figure, sitting
so quietly in that awful death-hush! Not the quiver of an eyelid; not
a tremble of the lip; only that great, solemn calm. It was al