Of the command, "Honor thy father and mother," says the Boston Transcript, Ruth Hall has been a significant reminder, to those who know the excellent man vilified in that novel as the heroine's father, and admitted in many ways to be intended by "Fanny Fern" as a picture of her own father, Mr. Willis. How differently he is looked upon by his other children it is a relief to humanity to know, and we are glad to be able to copy from the "Youth's Companion," the paper which Mr. Willis publishes in his declining years, the following lines addressed to him by his son, N. P. Willis, the brother of "Fanny Fern."
TO MY AGED FATHER.
[ON HEARING OF HIS RECENT CALAMITY, IN HAVING HIS OFFICE DESTROYED BY THE LATE FIRE IN SCHOOL-STREET.]
BY N. P. WILLIS\.
Cares thicken round thee as thy steps grow slow,
Father beloved!—not turn'd upon, as once,
And battled back with steadfastness unmov'd—
(That battle without fame or trump to cheer—
That hardest battle of the world—with care—
Thy life one patient victory till now!)