The World As I Have Found It | Page 5

in death, his arms folded and limbs outstretched.
He had been cruelly gored by a creature he had fed and fostered,
cherishing it as a pet among his domestic animals, and it had turned
upon him as many so-called human creatures repay those who have
protected and loved them!
They knew not whether his wounds or the intense cold had been the
final cause of death, but such was the sad dawning of their Christmas
day, and so, amid the joy of my reunion with those dear friends, came
the sad thought that--
Ever amid life's roses Will the sombre cypress be twined, And

wherever a joy reposes, A dream of sorrow we find.
I feel it due to the various government officials at Washington to give
them an expression of gratitude for the great facilities afforded me in
the way of permits to canvass in the many public departments, knowing
their strict rules and rigid restrictions in this regard.
I was volunteered an entrée everywhere, from the humblest government
office to the Capitol and White House, and in each and all was
courteously received. In subsequent years I had also great reason for
gratitude to Mr. Colfax, who not only gave his own patronage, but
presented me to Congress, the members of which vied with each other
in liberality.

CHAPTER V.
"Thus, with delight, we linger to survey The promised joys of life's
unmeasured way; Thus, from afar, each dim discovered scene More
pleasing seems than all the rest hath been; And every form that fancy
can repair From dark oblivion, glows divinely there."
My nature, in its first struggle with the world, shrank, like Mimosa,
from every human touch; but the kind words of love and gentle acts of
kindness already received transformed and ripened within me a more
trusting and hopeful character, and I almost unconsciously accepted as
immutable and inevitable the great law of compensation.
It is well that it was in the season of youth that my career began, that
season which Jean Paul so poetically designates as "The Festival Day
of Life," in which period friendship dwells as yet in a serenely open
Grecian Temple, not, as in later years, in a narrow Gothic Chapel.
My heart accepting as genuine these pure expressions of friendship, I
turned from Washington toward Virginia, and after a visit at Leesburg,
in which I had good success, I wrote to Mr. Taylor, the friend I have
before mentioned, asking him to meet me at Hamilton, which point was

reached by the old-time stage-route. Some doubt may have entered my
mind as to his remembrance of the promise to meet me, all of which
must have been dispelled when, upon the arrival of the stage, a cheery,
gentle voice, in a tone which would have filled the darkest moment of
doubt with the sun-ray of trust, exclaimed: "How does thee do, Mary?"
Miss Rachel Weaver, my companion, was a bright-eyed, sunny-hearted,
English girl, whose presence irradiated the atmosphere around her. She
was presented to him, and received the same quiet yet cordial greeting.
His carriage was in waiting for us, and a refreshing drive of three miles
brought us to his cozy home. The reception given us by his excellent
wife was characterized by all the depth and warmth of her expanded
and exalted nature, and we were at once domiciled as truly "at home."
The next day was the beginning of their Quarterly Meeting, and the
impressions of a life-time can never efface the varied pictures stamped
upon memory by each phase of that religious gathering. Not in a
gorgeous chapel of Gothic architecture, frescoed nave and highly
wrought transept; no stained glass windows of rainbow hue; no
gorgeously draped altar or elaborate organ; but in a simple wooden
meeting-house, upon a gently sloping grassy seclusion, came the feet of
those "who went up to the worship of God." No robed priest with
consecrated head was there, but all were privileged to express with the
lips the heart's devotion.
Mr. Taylor carried to this meeting a number of my little books, and I
am safe in saying that each member of that community bought one of
them.
At noon we partook of a collation upon the lovely green sward, where
sweet words solaced and kind hands tendered me hospitality.
Prominent among the guests was Mrs. Hoag, a lady of lovely character
and cultured mind, who insisted upon having us accompany her to her
home, a mansion rich and elegant in its appointments, and, above all,
its halls resounding with the music of innocent mirth, and hung with
the "golden tapestry" of love.
We remained in this community four weeks, a sweet "season of
refreshment," which so gently glided away that we awoke, like those

aroused from peaceful sleep and dear