190 CALVIN: A STUDY OF CHARACTER. 



ness and resignation in it. It came on grad- 

 ually, in a kind of listlessness and want of 

 appetite. An alarming symptom was his 

 preference for the warmth of a furnace-reg- 

 ister to the lively sparkle of the open wood- 

 fire. Whatever pain he suffered, he bore 

 it in silence, and seemed only anxious not to 

 obtrude his malady. We tempted him with 

 the delicacies of the season, but it soon be- 

 came impossible for him to eat, and for two 

 weeks he ate or drank scarcely anything. 

 Sometimes he made an effort to take some- 

 thing, but it was evident that he made the 

 effort to please us. The neighbors and I 

 am convinced that the advice of neighbors 

 is never good for anything suggested cat- 

 nip. He would n't even smell it. We had 

 the attendance of an amateur practitioner 

 of medicine, whose real office was the cure 

 of souls, but nothing touched his case. He 

 took what was offered, but it was with the 

 air of one to whom the time for pellets was 

 passed. He sat or lay day after day almost 

 motionless, never once making a display of 



