THE LAST YEARS 393 



Its earlier chapters are interwoven with Shady Hill 

 and all its attractions. Need I say how much of the 

 happiness of my personal life is owed to that delight- 

 ful circle, where the men were so intelligent and so 

 kindly, and the women so cultivated and sweet? 



Such were some of the brighter rays that lighted Mrs. 

 Agassiz's last years; but " the ship was nigh unto the har- 

 bor, and the pilgrim was reaching the city, and life was 

 close unto its end." Slowly the day was fading, yet the 

 clouds that gathered at evening never shrouded, even 

 though they dimmed, the rare and delightful qualities that 

 had been hers since the morning of life. Through the late 

 winter and the spring of 1907 her strength gradually 

 failed, but in June she was able to go to Arlington Heights. 

 Three weeks later, on June 27, the release came, and her 

 spirit returned unto God who gave it. 



