and Eben expressed to the assembled friends their love and reverence for their mother, whose mortal remains were about to be consigned to the earth, when Cyrus and Darius began to sing, as they never had before, "Nearer, my God, to Thee/' Those assembled united with them, and the very hills and forest seemed to join in that sublime hymn. Fitting music to accompany the dropping of the curtain on the final act, directed by the radiant angel of death and immortality.
This article was the last work from my twin brother's pen for publication before he died, January, 1903. It was tenfold a labor of love.
ALMEDA HALL COBB.—The life of Almeda Hall Cobb exemplifies Mary A. Livermore's saying that "fighting and war have been the main business of the world, in which women take no part, save to endure and suffer."
Born August 27, 1834, in the quaint, beautiful town of Marshfield, on Massachusetts Bay, she was the daughter of William and Sarah (Kent) Hall.- Her lineage was partly from the "Mayflower's" first company, Standish, White, and Brewster stock being among the blend in the ancestry of her mother, Sarah Kent. Her father, William Hall, of a line of South Shore ship-builders, was a man sterling in character.
Almeda's nature was, during her girlhood, sprightly and winsome to a degree that made her presence a perpetual delight. Brimful of music, it was her singing in the choir of the Rev. Sylvanus Cobb's church that stirred his son, George Winslow Cobb, to woo and win Almeda Hall for his wife. There was appropriateness in the mating, for her husband's line of ancestry was direct from Wader Henry Cobb, of Plymouth and Banistable, an immigrant of 1629.
To her wedded life Almeda brought all the innate Pilgrim reverence for holy marriage and for divinity, developing more and more with the sacred cares of maternity. The diary of her wifehood, dating from her wedding day. May 1, 1856, is like a sacred poem, a latter-day song of Ruth, in its spirit and diction.
Brought immediately, in the household and church of her husband's parents, Sylvanus and Eunice Cobb, into contact with noble men and women identified with the great temperance and anti-slavery reforms, her soul was quickened with desire to serve humankind as they were serving it. Yet her wifely and motherly devotion taxed her time, and only by the pages of her diary is the inmost secret of her real character revealed.
Three years after her marriage she writes: "How swiftly the time glides by, employed as I am at present with my two little ones and other domestic cares! for the happiest home has these cares if well conducted. Indeed, I can no more be happy if these little duties are neglected. I confess they sometimes press heavily upon me, and I feel that I would fain fly off from them a while and refresh my weary spirit by communion with the gifted spirits whose works lie thick around me; for, simple though our home is in its outward adornings, we have plenty of good books here. But I look forward to the time when these little ones will not require quite so close attention from me. There is so much I want to do, for myself, my family, and for everybody, all over this great and good world."
And again, later: "Thoughts I have that thrill my soul and make me better each hour I live, thoughts born of deep life experiences made blessed teachers by trust in God, thoughts that might shed light on the pathway of many a weary, sin-sick pilgrim; and yet must I keep them, for my time, if it cometh ever, is not yet come. Yet, if it be best so, then I know the Father will yet unseal these mute lips and give power to this dumb tongue. And, if it be better so, let me be yet as now. Only teach me thy will, O my Father, and I am content. Let my work be what and where it may: if I may only add to thy truth and power in the earth, I will be happy in doing it, and count myself, even though my sphere be limited, one of thy meek and lowly apostles, ever striving to lead others in the ’pleasant paths,' if I can in no other way, by a pure and spotless life.
