9 



of old age to live over again the life of early years, ten years of reflections and 

 making ready, and then a peaceful burial at one's birth-place is a blessing tliat 

 many have enjoyed in hope and a few in reality. There is a Scandiuavian legvud 

 of a boy who used to go dowu from bis father's hut to tbe rocks by the 0(;ean 

 side. There he saw the great ships of the sea kings go by, and his heart swelled 

 within him like the mountain brooks and he longed to become a Viking. He 

 sought the sea and became the foremost Viking of them all. His name was a 

 terror to both coasts of the channel. He conquered for himself a kingdom in 

 sunny France, and built a lordly palace and pleasure house among the vine- 

 yards and apple blossoms of the Seine. But the pride of power soon wearie.i : 

 flattery lost its charm. His heart grew siek with public care, the flckleurss, 

 the ingratitude, the cowardice of friends, and the voices of childhood fill aj^ain 

 the dull ear of age. All day long the goats bleat for him ; he hears the sweet, 

 sad sighing of the \vinds in the hemlocks, the pulsation of the surges against the 

 rocky shores. He longed for the quiet of nature, — 



' ' The silence that is in the starrj' sky. 

 The sleep that is among the lonely hills." 



He "gave his honors to the world again," came back to the hut of his child- 

 hood, ate again the barken bread of Sweden and drank its bitter beer, and when 

 the last hour came he was carried down to the rocks by the ocean side to die. 

 " Bury me not in Egypt." said good old Jacob;" "bury me with my fatheis, 

 I would lie in their burial place." 



