314 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



of the New Haven Green, as it was long ago, with 

 the old brick church and adjacent burial-ground upon 

 it, had been brought to Professor Silliman, and they 

 examined the picture together with much interest, 

 marking especially the edifice where, seventy years 

 before, they had spoken their commencement pieces. 

 He said to Mrs. Silliman (who entered the room after 

 the President came in), " You know I have told 

 you that whenever there was trouble, we were sure 

 to see President Day, and it is so still : here he is ; 

 he has come out this unpleasant day to see me." 

 He appeared to yearn for the presence of his son, 

 who had been absent for several months in California. 

 On the 3d of November he had written to the younger 

 Professor Silliman, adverting in the course of the 

 letter which reached its destination a month after 

 its date, when the hand that wrote it was motionless, 

 to the affectionate solicitude which the latter had 

 expressed respecting his father's health. In that last 

 letter, he said : " Every day, thanks for your preser- 

 vation and prosperity ascend from our family altar, 

 with prayers for your safe return. We suppose that 

 you have relinquished Oregon and Vancouver, and 

 that you may be with us by or before the new year. 

 It will be a joyful day when we can again embrace 

 you. I was tenderly touched by what you wrote in 

 one of your letters to S , in allusion to the possi- 

 bility of my absence when you return, but we will 

 look forward to a happy meeting here, and hope for 

 a happier one hereafter." Now, the desire to see his 

 son was strongly awakened. On Thursday, a tele- 

 graphic message was sent to him, so worded as to 

 hasten his departure without exciting undue alarm. 



