288 MEMOBIES OF YOUTH. 



windows rattled when the blast came fiercest, and how the 

 smoke would sometimes whirl down the great chimney. I 

 remember well where my father's chair was always placed ; 

 and where my mother sat of those winter evenings, when 

 her household cares were over for the day, plying her needle, 

 or knitting, or darning stockings, or mending garments, for 

 such employment was no dishonor to the matrons of those 

 days. With these for the leading figures, I remember how 

 seven brothers and sisters were grouped around, and how 

 the old house dog had a place in the corner, and how 

 lovingly the cat nestled between his feet. Cherished memo- 

 ries are these pleasant visions and they come to me often, 

 vivid as realities. But the dream vanishes, the vision fades - 

 away, and I think of the six pale, still faces as I saw them 

 last, and of the names that are chiseled upon the cold 

 marble that stands through the sunny spring-time, the heat 

 of summer, the autumnal days, and the storms and tempests 

 of winter, over the graves of the dead." 



