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times. Nieces and nephews came often to see her. Young men whom she had formerly befriended came, without regarding the sad change in her; children and grandchildren passed long summers with her, and her devotion to the little ones was touching to see. Of the great kindness of her neighbors, Miss Donnison and Mrs. Hopkinson, she constantly wrote to me.

At first she wrote often, but as years went on, her letters became mere repetitions; and, two years before she left Cambridge, they ceased altogether. From the later ones I select only a few extracts, showing, as dear Mrs. Child said of her at this time, "how the old light and warmth still sometimes shone through the rifted clouds."

"My son Joseph came to see me to-day, and brought Mr. Theodore Parker. I had not seen Mr. Parker for many years, not since he passed a night at my house in Northampton, and I did not know him, because he had become bald. He was very kind and cordial, and said, 'It is true, Mrs. Lyman, that I "have no hair on the top of my head, in the place where the hair ought to grow;" but my heart is the same, and it has kept a warm remembrance for you.' This made Mary Walker laugh very much, and you know a good laugh docs Mary a world of good."

"I walked down town yesterday, and I met Mrs. Cary and her good daughters; they are always kind, and don't treat me as if I were a poor old woman, 'all broke to pieces.'"

"Lois is just as good to me as if she had known me before; she sends her carriage to take me out driving, and always invites me to all the family parties. I am so rejoiced that Estes has such a wife; 'one who seeketh not her own.""

"Last Sunday night, my grandson, Ben, came and took tea with me, and he and Chauncey entertained me for hours with their profound conversation."

Alas! she could no longer understand "profound conversation;" but to know that it was going on about her, was like an echo of that far-off past, when she had contributed her own share, as well as listened to it.

Only a few more sentences are worth recording, from the still glowing and grateful and appreciative heart.

"Yesterday was Phi-Beta day; and who do you think called to see me? Why, Mr. Emerson! And he brought his charming good daughter, too. I am so glad he has that daughter. I introduced him to Chauncey. Chauncey is so very profound, I knew Mr. Emerson would think a great deal of him. Perhaps I shall never see Mr. Emerson any more. Well! I saw his day, and was glad.'"

Sally Pierce came to see me to-day, just as full of kindness and good sense as ever her mother was, and that is saying a great deal.”

"I take it very kind of Chauncey that he sometimes brings Mr. Gurney home to take tea. He knows that I always like to hear profound conversa

TRIBUTE TO CHAUNCEY WRIGHT

473

tion; and, I assure you, it is quite worth while to listen to them. I was used to my father, and your father, and your Uncle Howe, all my early life, and much of this modern talk I can't abide."

"I went out into the porch this morning, and Mary Walker was training some vines. I asked her what she was doing. She said, 'Endeavoring to restore the old Hutchinson style.' Perhaps she knows what that was. I am sure I don't."

"My Martha comes every Sunday evening to take tea, and sit the evening with me. Just the same dear, good child she always was. 'Among the faithless, always faithful found.""

"My Sister C. is an angel of mercy to me. What should I do without her? She spends more than half her time with me."

In another letter she laments the fact that James Thayer had left Cambridge. "That always good young man, who never forgot me at any time, but came every Sunday evening to take tea with me, when he might have gone to pleasanter places."

SEPT. 14, 1875

I had written thus far, and was restraining my grateful pen, as I recorded the last annals of the sad little household in Garden Street, when the word came to me that my noble friend, who was the chief stay and guardian of my dear mother's last home,

was now no more.

No need now, dear Chauncey, to refrain from telling what you were to us, from fear of causing your