So did the life of this good man pass gently away while he was still in the prime of manhood.  He was carried to beautiful Greenmount for burial, near the city in which his name will be coupled with loving memories for long years to come.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

    “Alas for him who never sees
    The stars shine through his cypress trees! 
    Who hopeless lays his dead away,
    Nor looks to see the breaking day
    Across the mournful marbles play! 
    Who hath not learned in hours of faith
    The truth to flesh and sense unknown,
    That Life is ever Lord of Death,
    And love can never lose its own!”

A short time after our return home, Miss Tyson, having become weary of traveling, I accompanied her to Morrison, and after spending a few days there left her with friends and went alone to Pecatonica, when Ida again accompanied me in my travels.  On my return I stopped at Winnebago, Illinois, to visit the hallowed spot in which Hattie lay buried.  As I approached the cemetery mingled memories of her beautiful life came surging through my soul, and a deep silent awe stole over me.  I sent my friends away to another part of the grounds that I might be entirely alone with my dead, and as I knelt in the stillness of that sacred hour I felt that the grave held only the precious clay, and that the sweet spirit-presence was there trying to comfort me as it had always done in earth-life, while, as the soft sound of the June wind stole through the trembling evergreen near by, it seemed to whisper a sweet song, whose burden sighed—­

    Love will dream and faith will trust,
    Since he who knows our needs is just;
    That somehow, somewhere, meet we must.

As I turned away I felt the strong ray of sunshine which fell upon her grave, and rested there a halo and a promise!

Our first stop going Westward was at Kansas City, and as it was the first of August we found the colored people out in a well-filled procession, celebrating this, one of their great Emancipation days.  Ida having seen very few colored people during her life was furnished an amusing entertainment.  We also visited Lawrence, which is so marked in Kansas annals, and Topeka, the capital, but as my experience in this State differs so materially from that in any other (not making sufficient through my sales to cover expenses), I will hurriedly pass it by.

We took the sleeping car at Topeka, but, as a “washout” had destroyed the track for some distance, I left the train with the other passengers, and walked with precision over culverts and places of danger with ofttimes only a narrow plank for my track.  A gentleman who kindly led me smilingly said this was indeed “walking by faith,” and it was true blind eyes never have aught but faith “as a lamp to their feet and a guide to their path.”