Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/61

 THE RANDALL FAMILY 53

happy, while I was in Hallowell. He did not go much into society there, if I remember rightly, although at that time there were many very good families open to admis- sion, among them Vaughans, Merricks, Abbots, and so forth.

"After leaving Hallowell, I went to Billerica, and did not see Randall again for a year, when I went to Boston to continue my studies. During the two years that I re- mained in Boston, I only met Randall occasionally.

" (Dr. Blanchard then went to Marshfield, where he remained twenty years. He then came to Dorchester, and resumed his intimacy with Randall, who was residing in Roxbury.) He called on me often, and I was fre- quently at his residence ; frequently on Sunday he would invite me to dine with him. I think he enjoyed seeing me, and I suppose it was because he had few associates to his taste, and really felt the need of sympathy. In fact, it was the readiness on my part to listen to his conversa- tion, and the sympathy that I was able to extend to him, that so much inclined him to enjoy my company. He was generally very talkative, and liked to have me listen to him. I could not always adopt his views, but did not violently antagonize him. By pursuing a sort of concilia- tory course on my part, he would gradually modify the positiveness of some of his statements and assertions, and perhaps come almost over to my views ; so that our dis- cussions were almost always very satisfactory and pleasant.

" I must here say that, during the twenty years that I had not seen Randall, he had changed much in his gen- eral characteristics. Though he had retained all his courteous and friendly feelings towards me, he had be- come somewhat morose, misanthropic, and, as I thought, unhappy. He seemed a perfect pessimist. Nothing suited

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