THE LAST TWO YEARS 409 



Near CHICAGO, Aug. 8, 1004. 



The first day is now over. Good weather train not overcrowded. I 

 thought I was alone and so wrote you yesterday, but as I went to mail the 

 letter, behold two of the " old boys," and since then others ; so that it has not 

 been so still as I hoped. At 6.30 this evening I shall be off for St. Paul and 

 the further distance. 



I like the plan of the balcony to the new part of the house very much. 

 On the whole the plans seem to me good. See that Willoughby [his son-in- 

 law] rests a bit. The train is about to start and the road is too rough for 

 writing. . . . 



The plans alluded to in the above were some which he had 

 seen in Boston for the remodelling of the house at the Vineyard. 

 The balcony was intended as a surprise ; it was made to connect 

 with Mr. Shaler's upstairs study so that he could at any time 

 when weary of writing go out upon it and refresh his eyes with 

 the sight of the Sound and the near-by woods, of which he was 

 very fond. 



The two succeeding years were spent very much as usual; 

 mainly in the discharge of college duties, which were neither 

 more nor less exacting than heretofore ; but even if they had been 

 Mr. Shaler would probably not have cared very much, for, hav- 

 ing about made up his mind to withdraw from teaching at the 

 first convenient moment, he was possessed of the calm that 

 comes with the sense of work almost completed. Only, as we 

 have seen, the merger scheme occasioned serious perturbation. 

 The reorganization of the Lawrence Scientific School also called 

 for the expenditure of much thought and care. After these im- 

 portant questions were disposed of he settled down to a state of 

 comparative repose. His daughters being married (the elder 

 to Mr. Willoughby Lane Webb and the younger to Mr. Logan 

 Waller Page) and gone to their own homes, the house was left 

 very quiet. The time of fervid striving had passed ; a serenity 

 seemed to pervade his spirit ; his engagements were less press- 

 ing, or, perhaps, it was that he was beginning to take things 

 more calmly. So the days passed pleasantly and peacefully. 

 The evenings he spent by the library fire, abandoning the habit 



