The Arkansas Advocate

Anecdote of an Irish Nurse.—The affection of Irish nurses to their foster-children is one of the most powerful and devoted feelings of which human nature is capable; they will follow them through evil report and good report—in poverty and in prosperity—in foreign Indias as well as in their own country. And one instance I well remember: an Irishwoman who had nursed a foster child—the younger child of a family that had been both respectable and respected in former times—was in an English jail, came over, attended him during the sad and lonely hours of imprisonment; and when he was doomed to an ignominious death, never left his side until he changed time for eternity. She talked to him of those he had loved, before his fall, and his soul became polluted by evil. And it was a holy thing, within the prison walls, to hear that gray-headed woman put up her heartfelt prayers to the Almighty, for the object of such pure affection. When all was over, she claimed his body, waked it after the fashion of her country, sold all she possessed in the world to give it a decent burial, and was herself his monument; for a few nights afterwards she was found dead upon his grave!!