Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/62

38 bright and healthy days between us something of that comradeship that may exist between the old and the young. Many a time we had to sit side by side when I was a guest at the family table, and we had our little jests, and teasings, and romps, and merriments together, the charming memory of which I hope never in my life to lose.

According to the ancient saying, those who are beloved by the gods die young. And this dear little boy certainly could be counted among those beloved. He was the late child of a most happy union. His birth was to his parents like the breaking of a fresh morning in the advanced day. Upon his cradle nature and fortune seemed to shower their choicest favors. That cradle stood in the lap of the purest and most beautiful family life. All that surrounded him was love and concord and goodness. When he first opened his eyes their unconscious glance fell upon this spot, than which there is upon the face of the earth scarcely one more radiant with rich beauty. But more than that. He was to be one of the heirs of his father's and his mother's fair fame and noble deeds. It was like a smiling fancy of fortune that, while he was still a baby in his mother's arms, he should participate in the consummation of his father's greatest achievement. And in their days of adversity his parents found no sweeter comfort than in this baby s bright eyes. Surely, this child was one of the beloved of the gods.

He could hardly stand upon his little feet when he quickly grew up into a distinct individuality. Of singularly delicate, almost feminine comeliness of shape, he soon developed in himself something like a real character, far away from the common. His infant mind seemed to work in channels entirely its own. He had a habit of self-contemplation and self-criticism, looking at his own being and doings as those of a third person, which