It has seemed to me so clear that he
ought to belong to the club, if he were inclined to join it, that I
should have nominated him long ago had I not labored under the
impression that he must have been previously proposed....
Yours very truly, O. W. HOLMES.
For many years it seemed that time stood still with the Autocrat. His
happy home and his cheerful temper appeared to stay the hand of the
destroyer. At last a long illness fell upon his wife; and after her
death, when his only daughter, who had gone to keep her father's
house, was suddenly taken from his side, the shadows of age gathered
about him; then we learned that he was indeed an old man.
For the few years that remained to him before his summons came he
accepted the lot of age with extraordinary good cheer. His hearing
became very imperfect. "I remind myself sometimes," he said, "of those
verses I wrote some years ago. I wonder if you would remember them! I
called the poem 'The Archbishop and Gil Bias: A Modernized Version.'"
He then repeated with great humor and pathos a few of the lines:--
"_Can you read as once you used to?_ Well, the printing is so
bad,
No young folks' eyes can read it like the books that once we had.
_Are you quite as quick of hearing?_ Please to say that once
again.
_Don't I use plain words, your Reverence?_ Yes, I often use a
cane."
"As to my sight," he continued, "I have known for some years that I
have cataracts slowly coming over my eyes; but they increase so very
slowly that I often wonder which will win the race first--the
cataracts or death.
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