Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/104

 g6 I^'TR ODUC TION

Strong, his heart was as pitiful and merciful as a woman's to all who were weak.

It so happened that Randall was exactly twenty-three years my senior; our birthdays fell on the same day of the same month. This coincidence greatly impressed my imagination, and lent a romantic tinge to our singular friendship. Notwithstanding the great disparity of our ages, the man of thirty-seven chose to treat the boy of fourteen on a footing of perfect equality in all respects. When my father wished to put me under his charge and delegate to him his own parental authority during our stay in Stow, Randall altogether declined that relationship. He insisted that I should be his guest, not his pupil or depend- ent. It goes without saying that such an arrangement would delight any boy. Moreover, from the time of that first visit he insisted that I should call him " John," and not "Mr. Randall," — much less "Dr. Randall," a title which reminded him unpleasantly of his own compulsory medical education. A few years later, when I was about to enter college under difficulties, in 1855, I shall never forget how delicately and kindly he proposed to me one evening, as we were taking a walk over West Boston bridge, to defray all the expenses of my college education, nor how touched he was, when I replied impetuously that I could not accept this — that I could not afford to ex- change our relation as equal friends for the relation of benefactor and beneficiary. This feeling he respected ever after to the day of his death, and never again offered (except in one instance, in a letter, when the offer was again declined) pecuniary assistance under any circum- stances. No man ever better understood the deep truth of Cicero's words, solem enim e mundo tollere videntiir qui amicitiam c vita tolbmt, qua nihil a diis immortalibtcs

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