Page 132 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

READING LESSONS. 131
in anticipation, e pleasures of their approaching interview; the heart- lt joy at meeting, the very delight at being together, the intimate communica­ tion of all the thoughts, and sentiments, and events that had lled up the interim, since their parting at the last change of the moon. As he approached the dwelling of his iend, he was astonished to see the entrance crowded with the members and adherents
of the mily, who observed a mourn l silence while
he drew near. He inquired r Moirni. There seemed a general reluctance to reply. "Dead! Is it possible!" He rushed into the building. There, extended on a neral couch, he beheld the body of his iend, no longer conscious of his presence. For the rst time, no smile appeared upon the lips of h.foirni ; at his approach, no hand was raised to greet him, no ush of joy passed over the pallid atures
of his iend. A brief but violent illness had, within the interim between their last meeting and the pres­ ent, made that warm and loving heart acquainted with a coldness, that it had never known be re. Usna could scarce believe his eyes and ears. He gazed in silent astonishment on the closed eyelids and pallid atures of bis iend, which bore so new and terrible an expression. Ile had never, until now, looked upon death, and least of all, had death and Moirni ever dwelt together in his thoughts. A hor­ ror seized him, which r a time excluded grief. "Dead! Moirni dead!" he repeated continually in bis mind. The body was remove , but Usna con­ tinued to behold it wheresoever he turned his eyes.
3. For the rst time, sorrow seized upon his soul.
As he returned to his ther's palace, all nature seemed to have su ered a sudden alteration. The skies, the hills, the woods, the owers, seemed all to