And he was also the sexton of the
oldest church in town,--the Old South,--and had charge of the
winding-up of the town clock, and the ringing of the bell on
week-days and Sundays, and the tolling for funerals,--into which
mysteries he sometimes allowed us youngsters a furtive glimpse.
I did not believe that there was another grandfather so
delightful as ours in all the world.
Uncles, aunts, and cousins were plentiful in the family, but they
did not live near enough for us to see them very often, excepting
one aunt, my father's sister, for whom I was named. She was fair,
with large, clear eyes that seemed to look far into one's heart,
with an expression at once penetrating and benignant. To my
childish imagination she was an embodiment of serene and lofty
goodness. I wished and hoped that by bearing her baptismal name I
might become like her; and when I found out its signification (I
learned that "Lucy" means "with light"), I wished it more
earnestly still. For her beautiful character was just such an
illumination to my young life as I should most desire mine to be
to the lives of others.
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