He trusted that the old house would wear no aspect of
mourning, but that it would be lively and cheerful; and that we
would not remove or cover up his picture, which hangs in our
dining-room, but make it our companion as he had been. His own
room, our place of meeting, remains, at his desire, in its
accustomed state; our seats are placed about the table as of old;
his easy-chair, his desk, his crutch, his footstool, hold their
accustomed places, and the clock stands in its familiar corner. We
go into the chamber at stated times to see that all is as it should
be, and to take care that the light and air are not shut out, for
on that point he expressed a strong solicitude. But it was his
fancy that the apartment should not be inhabited; that it should be
religiously preserved in this condition, and that the voice of his
old companion should be heard no more.
My own history may be summed up in very few words; and even those I
should have spared the reader but for my friend's allusion to me
some time since. I have no deeper sorrow than the loss of a child,
- an only daughter, who is living, and who fled from her father's
house but a few weeks before our friend and I first met.
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