"Yes, Thou hast felt the withering power
Of mortal weakness and distress;

And Thou hast known the bitter hour
Of desolating loneliness,

Hast mourned Thy friends so faithless fled,
And wept in anguish o'er the dead.

"Thou, too, hast tried the tempter's power,
And felt his false and palsying breath;
And known the gloomy fears that wait
Along the shadowy vale of death,
And what the dreaded pang must be,
Of life's last parting agony.

"My only hope, my stay, my shield,

Thy fainting creature looks to Thee;
Thy gracious love, Thy guidance yield,
In this my last extremity.

With Thy dear guardian hand to save,
Lord, I can venture to the grave."

CHAPTER IV.

CLARA BARTON.

BY LUCY LARCOM.

Clara Barton's Early Life- A Faithful Little Nurse at Eleven - Devotion to Her Sick Brother-Breaking Out of the Civil War- Her Loyalty and Devotion to the Union - The Old Sixth Massachusetts Regiment - First Blood Shed for the Union- Miss Barton's Timely Services - Consecrating Her Life to the Soldier's Needs- At the Front - Army Life and Experiences Undaunted Heroism - Terrible Days - Errands of Mercy "The Angel of the Battlefield" - Instances of Her Courage and Devotion-Narrow Escapes- Her Labors for Union Prisoners - Record of the Soldier Dead - Dorrance Atwater-Work After the War-Visit to Europe - The Society of the Red Cross - The Franco-Prussian WarAt the Front Again - Unfurling the Banner of the Red Cross-Record of a Noble Life.

HE women who have lived nobly are far more worthy of honor than those who have only written or spoken well. Great inspirations, whether sudden as lightning or slow as the steady unfolding of dawn, find their perfect end only through embodiment in action.

The every-day life of woman is full of difficult demands, grandly met; and these are none the less heroisms because they often occur in some obscure corner, where they are not looked upon as

anything remarkable. But when an unusual occasion reveals a duty which must be done in the face of the whole world, the true woman does not shrink back into her beloved seclusion, and let the opportunity pass. She may dread notoriety with all the strength of her womanly nature, but the voice of God within her is imperative; she cannot be disobedient unto the heavenly vision; - and the really heroic soul forgets herself and everything except the high demand

of the hour, and undertakes the difficult public labor as simply as she would any humble fireside service.

Clara Barton's life is before the world, not through any effort or wish of her own, but only through her having taken hold, with all her heart and with all her strength, of work that she saw needed to be done. Her labors have been almost unique in the annals of womanly endeavor, for their steady perseverance, for the wisdom, the courage, and the self-forgetfulness which has animated them. Quick to see the exigencies of a situation, and prompt and wise to meet them; understanding both how to direct and how to obey; her bravery and self-reliance balanced by her generosity and warm-heartedness, there is much in her character that reminds us of Wordsworth's description of "The Happy Warrior," while it would be unjust to her not to add that she is one of the most womanly of women.

She is a daughter of New England. Her birthplace was North Oxford, among the hills of Worcester County, Massachusetts; and the fact that she was born on Christmas day is not without significance in her history. Her childhood was blessed with outdoor freedom and indoor comfort and peace, such as are known to the healthy, well-cared-for country children of our Commonwealth. The youngest of a large family, with many years intervening between her and her brothers and sisters, she was left a good deal to herself for amusement and occupation, both of which she readily found, -going through wild snow-drifts or summer sunshine two miles to school, playing on the hillsides, wading in the brooks, or scampering across her father's fields on any untamed pony she could find.

So it went on until she was eleven years old, when more care fell upon her than often comes to so young a child. One of her brothers, an athletic young man, had a fall from the top of a building he was helping to raise. He seemed not at all hurt at the time, but the shock resulted in a long period of utter prostration, during which his little sister became his nurse, for two years scarcely leaving his bedside, day or night.

It may seem strange that this wearing task should have been given to the youngest of the family; but it was characteristic of Clara Barton from the first to assume the most self-denying work as her own especial right. Moreover, she grew into her position through a natural fitness for it. Placed beside the sick man, as the little girl of the household, to fan him or bring him a glass of water at need, he became accustomed to her deft ways and fresh sympathies, and could not well do without them. And the child-nurse, for love of the sufferer and of the work of ministering, took only a half day's respite for herself during that long period.

After the invalid's recovery, when Clara was about sixteen years old, having prepared herself in the studies ordinarily required, she began to teach in the district-schools of her own home-neighborhood, not shrinking from those where rough boys had been in the habit of forcibly ejecting the master. She had no trouble with her pupils, winning at once their hearts and their obedience. Her services were in constant demand, and she pursued the occupation for several years, during intervals of leisure assisting her brothers, who had become prominent business men of their native place, in their counting-house labors.

Later, she went through a thorough course of study in Clinton, N. Y., and then resumed teaching in the State of New Jersey.

In 1853 we find her doing a remarkable work at Bordentown, where there had been a strong prejudice against the establishment of free schools. She had been told that such an undertaking would certainly be unsuccessful; but she agreed to assume the entire responsibility for three months at her own expense. She took a tumble-down building, and began with six scholars, making it understood that the children of rich and poor were alike welcome. In four or five weeks the building proved too small for the number who came, and the one school grew into two. The result in one year was the erection of a fine edifice, and the establishment of a free school at Bordentown, with a roll of five hundred