" So peaceful was his departure, that, although
surrounded by his mourning friends, they were unable to tell the exact
moment of his death. Like a wearied child that sleeps, he quietly passed
away. They had no burial ground in the settlement, and he was laid to
rest several miles from his home. His family, with the exception of one
son, had all married and removed to homes of their own some time
previous to his death; and to this son was assigned the happy task of
watching over the declining years of his widowed mother. Mr. Miller, as
a dying injunction, charged this son never to neglect his mother in her
old age, and most sacredly did he observe the dying wishes of his
father. Mrs. Miller was also of advanced age. For three years longer she
lingered, and was then laid to rest beside her departed husband.
Twenty years have passed away since we introduced Robert Ainsley
with his family to the reader. Let us pay a parting visit to Hazel-Brook
farm, and note the changes which these twenty years have effected. The
forest has melted away before the hand of steady industry, and we pass
by cultivated fields on our way to the farm of Mr. Ainslie. The
clearings have extended till very few trees obstruct our view as we gaze
over the farms of the numerous settlers, which are now separated by
fences instead of forest trees.
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