A year afterwards came this:—
Dear Friend,—Mother was paralyzed Tuesday, a year from the evening father died. I thought perhaps you would care.
Your Scholar.
With this came the following verse, having a curious seventeenth-century flavor:—
“A death-blow is a life-blow to some,
Who, till they died, did not alive become;
Who, had they lived, had died, but when
They died, vitality begun.”
And later came this kindred memorial of one of the oldest and most faithful friends of the family, Mr. Samuel Bowles, of the Springfield “Republican”:—
Dear Friend,—I felt it shelter to speak to you.