Years of Blindness. 37 



ness he and I once thought to make a fellow-student the 

 innocent subject of a practical joke suggested by our find- 

 ing an old Independence ball invitation. This invitation, 

 with its date properly corrected, was by due course of mail 

 transmitted to one of the lady teachers, purporting to have 

 been sent by our intended victim, and, as we thought, was 

 sure to be returned at once with a dignified if not indig- 

 nant refusal. Alas ! the lady's logic had not arrived at the 

 same conclusion, as we learned to our consternation trie 

 next day, when the student showed us a polite acceptance 

 of the invitation and vainly wondered what it all meant. 

 Of course we lost our intended joke ; but the contretemps 

 put the whole thing, as well as ourselves, into such a ridic- 

 ulous attitude that we had many a good laugh over the 

 affair, though not at the other student's expense. The 

 teacher's tears of chagrin were a cause of deep regret to 

 us both ; but our share in the transaction prevented any 

 overt expression of sympathy. 



At that time your brother was slight rather than frail of 

 figure, with a somewhat pallid, colourless complexion, and a 

 perceptible stoop in the shoulders. A weakness of the 

 eyes caused a partial closing of the lids in order to shield 

 them from the light, and his manly, symmetrical features 

 from this cause lost in part their naturally frank and at- 

 tractive expression. I believe his habits and speech were 

 exceptionally free from youthful improprieties and vulgari- 

 ty, and his intercourse with all showed the governing in- 

 fluence of a pure and generous nature. If I were asked 

 what peculiarity was most noticeable in him, I should say 

 it was his ready and apt use of words, both in composi- 

 tion and speech, which were not quite the ordinary and 

 commonplace forms of expression among students and 

 young men of his age. This did not take the appearance 

 of pedantry or of any conscious effort at display, but 

 rather of an intuitive love for nicety of expression and a 

 resulting habit of selecting and treasuring up in memory 



