This considerate action, although
unsolicited on the part of the latter, deeply touched
them, as indicating a sense of the high estimation in
which the youth bad been held. It was a tribute to the
memory of him they mourned, of the purest kind; and each,
as he received his portion, acknowledged with a mournful
but approving look, or nod, or word, the motive that bad
prompted the offering. Nor was it a source of less
satisfaction, melancholy even as that satisfaction was,
to perceive that, after having set aside another lock,
probably for the sister of the deceased, she selected
and consigned to the bosom of her dress a third, evidently
intended for herself. The whole scene was in striking
contrast with the almost utter absence of all preparation
or concern that had preceded the interment of Murphy, on
a former occasion. In one, the rude soldier was mourned,
--in the other, the gentle friend was lamented; nor the
latter alone by the companions to whom intimacy had
endeared him, but by those humbler dependants, who knew
him only through those amiable attributes of character,
which were ever equally extended to all.
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