CALVIN: A STUDY OF CHARACTER. 191 



those vulgar convulsions or contortions of 

 pain which are so disagreeable to society. 

 His favorite place was on the brightest spot 

 of a Smyrna rug by the conservatory, where 

 the sunlight fell and he could hear the foun- 

 tain play. If we went to him and exhibited 

 our interest in his condition, he always 

 purred in recognition of our sympathy. And 

 when f spoke his name, he looked up with 

 an expression that said, " I understand it, 

 old fellow, but it 's no use." He was to all 

 who came to visit him a model of calmness 

 and patience in affliction. 



1 was absent from home at the last, but 

 heard by daily postal-card of his failing 

 condition, and never again saw him alive. 

 One sunny morning, he rose from his nig, 

 went into the conservatory (he was very 

 thin then), walked around it deliberately, 

 looking at all the plants he knew, and then 

 went to the bay-window in the dining-room, 

 and stood a long time looking out upon 

 the little field, now brown and sere, and 

 toward the garden, where perhaps the hap* 



