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 ...

CHAPTER XVIII.

A SUNSET BURIAL IN THE ROSE GARDEN - AN UNEXPECTED
AND AN UNDESIRABLE GUEST--A SLAVE-TRADER AND
HIS MISSION - THE "NIGGAH" MARKET.
Mrs. Henderson's Remorse -Laura Bedecked with Flowers as if for a
Bridal- Her Grave in the Rose Garden -A Sunset Burial -I Read
the Burial Service at Laura's Grave - The Servants' Passionate
Demonstrations of Grief--A Break in the Ranks -A Vanished
Presence -" Where do You think Sist' Laura has Gone?"-The
Unsolved Problem of the Ages - An Awful Mystery - Life Beyond
the Grave -The Influence of Laura's Life -I Resume School Sessions - Laggard Dick - A "Slough of Despond "- " I wish the Fellers that writ them Mis'able Latin Grammars had to Eat 'em "-A
Solitary Horseman - " Who is He, and What is his Errand? "- A
Slave-Trader Makes Us a Visit--A Repulsive and Ill-favored ManThe "Niggah" Market - " Pa's Gwine to Sell Aleck."
T HE next morning I called on Mrs. Henderson, who, by
the advice of Dr. Singleton, was to keep her room
and bed for a few days. She received me with a tenderness of manner she had never before shown, and, drawing me down to the pillow on which she lay, kissed me.
All the frigidity of her manner had melted, and she was
full of friendliness. In broken words she thanked me for
the " invaluable service " I had rendered her and her children, and especially for what I had done for "dear Laura,
to whom I had been so devoted." I could not tell whether
she was conscious of having failed in motherly tenderness to
her daughter, or whether she reproached herself for hardness and indifference towards her. She may not have been
aware of her shortcomings in this respect, for both in character and temperament she was so unlike Laura that she
(308)