Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/179

 THE RANDALL FAMILY I7I

suit me, I expressed great indignation, when he pleasantly said, I should have a right to be angry if he meant what I supposed, but that I was really mistaken ; and we instantly made it up together. 'Twas the only disagreement we ever had, and was but momentary. To know him better, I secured him for the next season to go with me to the Mountains. I there learned how excellent was his taste in scenery, how active and accurate were all his senses. He was so social and affectionate, and so good-tempered under fatigue, that (what is very rare upon foot journeys) we had not an ill-natured word together during the whole time.

I engaged him to go with me again in the following season, but he was prevented from doing so. Yet we fre- quently met, and he seemed ever to yearn for a deeper and deeper relation to me, and I, nothing loth, made the way into my heart open and easy as I could, and would have him dive there deep as he would go. I invited him to take your place with me during your absence, and, when you returned, I hoped to walk between you both through the roadway of life into the valley of death, and to sail together, if it might be permitted, through the ocean of eternity. But the little band is broken up. The dear companion who has joined both of us since we started upon the path of life has wandered from us, and whither I know not. The star that for a time brightened our way is veiled in clouds, and we must enter the shades of night with what comfort we can. Yet I am glad to find little cause of reproach to myself in the past, for I made him as happy as I could.

Our friend had acquired in a desultory way no small amount of historical knowledge. He had studied with some care Napoleon's apothegms, and applied them aptly

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