Thou hast been a good pious woman, and canst have little to reproach thyself with." My mother looked earnestly and wistfully at her husband.

Never before had he betrayed so strong an interest in her happiness, and had it not, alas! been too late, this glimmering of kindness might have lighted the matrimonial torch into a brighter flame than had ever yet glowed upon the past.
"Mr.Goldencalf, we have an only son--" "We have, Betsey, and it may gladden thee to hear that the physician thinks the boy more likely to live than either of his poor brothers and sisters." I cannot explain the holy and mysterious principle of maternal nature that caused my mother to clasp her hands, to raise her eyes to heaven, and, while a gleam flitted athwart her glassy eyes and wan cheeks, to murmur her thanks to God for the boon.

She was herself hastening away to the eternal bliss of the pure of mind and the redeemed, and her imagination, quiet and simple as it was, had drawn pictures in which she and her departed babes were standing before the throne of the Most High, chanting his glory, and shining amid the stars--and yet was she now rejoicing that the last and the most cherished of all her offsprings was likely to be left exposed to the evils, the vices, nay, to the enormities, of the state of being that she herself so willingly resigned.
"It is of our boy that I wish now to speak, Mr.Goldencalf," replied my mother, when her secret devotion was ended.

"The child will have need of instruction and care; in short, of both mother and father." "Betsey, thou forgettest that he will still have the latter." "You are much wrapped up in your business, Mr.Goldencalf, and are not, in other respects, qualified to educate a boy born to the curse and to the temptations of immense riches." My excellent ancestor looked as if he thought his dying consort had in sooth finally taken leave of her senses.
"There are public schools, Betsey; I promise thee the child shall not be forgotten: I will have him well taught, though it cost me a thousand a year!" His wife reached forth her emaciated hand to that of my father, and pressed the latter with as much force as a dying mother could use.

For a fleet moment she even appeared to have gotten rid of her latest care.