CERTAINTY AND REPOSE. 409 



though then overclouded aspect, and a youth of about seven- 

 teen, and they repaired presently from the aisle to the chancel, 

 where they stood together, hand-in-hand, before a simple 

 tablet let into the wall. The names of three individuals had 

 been graven successively upon the marble, that of a mother, 

 who had died young a father (late vicar of the parish) and 

 a child, their only child Lucy, who had followed them at the 

 age of fourteen.* 



The foregoing episode of our early days, fraught with sad- 

 ness and closed by a record of the tomb, may appear a theme 

 unfitting for this cheerful season ; but to ourself there has 

 long been much of peace and even pleasure in its retrospect. 

 It is true, that for many a year after the above occurrences, 

 the chirp of a cricket the sight of a cockroach the survey 

 of our cabinet treasures even the cheery hum and busy 

 flight of insect multitudes, gave us more of pain than 

 pleasure, for all seemed then as the veritable spirits of 

 our childhood's hearth and home, powerful to bring before 

 us memories steeped in sorrow. But now, ye winged re- 

 membrancers ! ye are welcome all, and chief, Acheta, good 

 genius of our faithful Dolly, in whom, for love of her 

 as well as thee, we have joyed to acknowledge our proto- 

 type and symbol. Not for this, though, should we have 



* The author read, some few years since, in a collection of French tales, a story, 

 of which he forgets both name and writer, bearing some identical resemblance 

 with the above relation. 



