“Willie.”
Other letters written in these delightful school-days show him at the time when the boy-mind begins to realize the importance of dress and of personal adornment. The episode of the diamond pin is told with characteristic frankness and vivacity. But another paragraph from the letter shows a most commendable fondness for his old hat—a marked evidence of the genuine sentiment of the boy’s nature. The description of the football field and its unfailing perils carries a contemporaneous interest; and a boy’s account of his studies is always fascinating reading. The brief story of the prayer-meeting in “Willie Beecher’s” room and his confidence in the leader who “can explain about any passage in the Bible” must close these glimpses into the real heart of an unspoiled and ingenuous boy. They are a key to his nature,—its frankness, heartiness, enjoyment of simple things, a self-confidence that was destined to help him touch the goal of a great success, singularly combined with a humility which kept him always open to reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. They show his warm and affectionate nature, which never changed but to deepen and sweeten as he matured. They reveal his earnestness and sincerity; traits which underlie all his qualities like the bedrock of the continent, and on which his fun and frolic grew as naturally as grass and foliage out of the soil which masks and clothes the granite:
“Washington, Conn., May 21, 1864.
“Dear Mother:
“I arrived here safely. Meeting Willie B. and Bertie B. & Mary Gunn all at Newtown in the cars. We had a very pleasant time coming up & Mrs. Gunn was delighted with the Tulips. Everybody noticed my diamond pin, & I tell you what!!!! They praise it up, saying & asking me how much it cost? and having me stand still, so that they might see it, once in a while I do stand still & let them feast their eyes on it. Some of them ask me if it is glass set round with Gutta Percha and brass. I always tell them ‘yes of course.’ I tell you what!! I’m proud of it and will keep it & conform to your rules. I wear it whenever I go to school & put the guard on my shirt, so if the tie should fall off it would be held on. I suppose you remember the blue tie that you got me. I wore it up from N. Y. to here, & my rough coat rubbing against it made it look awful, bringing out all the shoddy, and making it look like down all over the tie.
“When I got home I took every bit of the white stuff out & now all the boys think it looks a great deal prettier. Dear Mother I want to tell you something about that hat. It is one that I have had two winters, and I like it because it is so old. I would rather have this one than a new one, and the other is not fit to wear and doesn’t fit me, so Henry may have a new one.
“Mrs. Gunn thinks that I ought to have my own old hat. And she is going to try and have the other one fixed up for Henry.
“Here I must stop,
I am your affectionate Son,
“Willie.”