The story of my life ; or, The sunshine and shadow of seventy years / by Mary A. Livermore ... with hitherto unrecorded incidents and recollections of three years' experience as an army nurse in the great Civil War, and reminiscences of twenty-five years' experiences on the lecture platform ... to which is added six of her most popular lectures ... with portraits and one hundred and twenty engravings from designs by eminent artists ...

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THE STORY OF MY LIFE.

was blurred with tears. It was an unbroken household then,
- and now one had dropped by the way, and the gap could
never be filled. How promising the out-going! How desolate the home-coming!
It was dark before we reached the avenue leading to our
home. The gates swung wide to admit us, with an absence
of the usual noisy chatter of the black boys, who opened
and closed them quietly, and with awed faces. We passed
the schoolhouse at the foot of the hill, dimly visible in the
light of the young moon; and there was another outburst
of grief, evoked by the thought that simultaneously took
possession of us all,- never again would her feet pass over
the threshold. We drew up at the front door. Aunt Aggy
stood on the veranda to receive us, with her native courtesy
and dignity. But her speech was choked by emotion, and
tears were coursing down her cheeks. We passed into the
great family sitting-room, and wept together in sympathy.
After Aunt Aggy had made her mistress comfortable for
the night, and the children were wrapped in sleep, and the
household hushed and still, - all save Mr. Henderson, who
was keeping a solitary vigil, awaiting the arrival of his
beloved dead, - she came to my room to learn the story of
Laura's illness. She was Laura's foster-mother, and had
had almost exclusive care of her in infancy and early childhood, loving her as if she were in very deed her own child.
" Missis nebber took t' Mis' Lorry," she said with a sigh;
"she was a mos' ornary baby when she was born, -blue an'
sick, an' mos'-wise cryin. De Boydton doctor said she'd
mis'ry o' de heart, an' could nebber be raised; an' ef I
hadn't tooken de chile t' my house, an' my breast, an' turned
off my own baby, Carline, an' jess worked day an' night wi'
catnip an' mint, an' hot flannin's, an' dry rubbin's, I 'spect
Mis' Lorry nebber would a' bin brung up. Missis nebber