`` With what strength is left me by my many troubles , '' said she , `` I am ready to undertake this charge , and to do my best in it . '' `` My children , join your hands , '' said Father Ephraim . They did so . The elders stood up around , and the father feebly raised himself to a more erect position , but continued sitting in his great chair . `` I have bidden you to join your hands , '' said he , `` not in earthly affection , for ye have cast off its chains for ever , but as brother and sister in spiritual love and helpers of one another in your allotted task . Teach unto others the faith which ye have received . Open wide your gates -- I deliver you the keys thereof -- open them wide to all who will give up the iniquities of the world and come hither to lead lives of purity and peace . Receive the weary ones who have known the vanity of earth ; receive the little children , that they may never learn that miserable lesson . And a blessing be upon your labors ; so that the time may hasten on when the mission of Mother Ann shall have wrought its full effect , when children shall no more be born and die , and the last survivor of mortal race -- some old and weary man like me -- shall see the sun go down nevermore to rise on a world of sin and sorrow . '' The aged father sank back exhausted , and the surrounding elders deemed , with good reason , that the hour was come when the new heads of the village must enter on their patriarchal duties . In their attention to Father Ephraim their eyes were turned from Martha Pierson , who grew paler and paler , unnoticed even by Adam Colburn . He , indeed , had withdrawn his hand from hers and folded his arms with a sense of satisfied ambition . But paler and paler grew Martha by his side , till , like a corpse in its burial-clothes , she sank down at the feet of her early lover ; for , after many trials firmly borne , her heart could endure the weight of its desolate agony no longer . NIGHT-SKETCHES , BENEATH AN UMBRELLA . Pleasant is a rainy winter 's day within-doors . The best study for such a day -- or the best amusement : call it what you will -- is a book of travels describing scenes the most unlike that sombre one which is mistily presented through the windows . I have experienced that Fancy is then most successful in imparting distinct shapes and vivid colors to the objects which the author has spread upon his page , and that his words become magic spells to summon up a thousand varied pictures . Strange landscapes glimmer through the familiar walls of the room , and outlandish figures thrust themselves almost within the sacred precincts of the hearth . Small as my chamber is , it has space enough to contain the ocean-like circumference of an Arabian desert , its parched sands tracked by the long line of a caravan with the camels patiently journeying through the heavy sunshine . Though my ceiling be not lofty , yet I can pile up the mountains of Central Asia beneath it till their summits shine far above the clouds of the middle atmosphere .
And with my humble means -- a wealth that is not taxable -- I can transport hither the magnificent merchandise of an Oriental bazaar , and XXXXX a crowd of purchasers from distant countries to pay a fair profit for the precious articles which are displayed on all sides .
Open bidden born call go learn said see tracked withdrawn