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died, “If I live, I will go to
Amherst; if I die, I certainly will.”
Is your house deeper off?
Your Scholar.
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.
My brother and sister are with Mr. Bowles, who is buried this afternoon.
The last song that I heard — that was, since the birds — was “He leadeth me, he leadeth me; yea, though I walk” --then the voices stooped, the arch was so low.
After this added bereavement the inward life of the diminished household became only more
