The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1849-01-16

| eyt-SOOu OLD port ana warm madeira ca
ried il against hook, claret and red burgur
dySchampaigne, stews, hashes ragouts ere,
INTO fayor-crusis were rarely called for {
relish the cheese after dinner-conyersetio
grew less 5oisterous. and ii turned chiefly o.
politics and The state of the funds, or the val
ne OF landed property-apologies were mad
Tor coming in thick shoes and warm stocking
tho doors and windows were most care
fully provided with list and bags-.he fir,
more in request-and quiet game of whis
g! filled up the hours that were wont to be de
voted 10 drinking, singing, and riotous mer
rment The rubbers, u cup Of coffee, and a
home by II O'Clock, was the usual cry, wher
the fifth or sixth glass had gene round aiiel
the removal of The cloth. At parting, 100
there was long ceremony in the hall, but.
tonlng up great coats, trying on wooden COM
forters, fixing silk handkerchiefs over the
mouth and up to the ears. grasping sturdy
walking canes 10 support unsteady leet.
Their fiitieth anniversary Came, and death
had indeed been busy.
-Four little old men Of withered appearance
and decrepit walk, with cracked voices, and
dim rayess eyes, sat down by the mercy Of
heaven, las they themselves TREMENDOUSLY de-
clared, 10 celebrate for the fitch time, the
first day Of the year, TO observe the irolic
compact which, half century before they
had entered into at the Star and Garter al
Richmond. Eight were in their graves !
The four that remained Stood upon its con-
fines. Yet they chirped cheerlully ovet their
glass. though they could scarcely carry it to
their lips, il more than half full; and crack
ed their jokes, though they aIticulaled their
words with difficulty and heard each other
with still greater difficulty. They mumbled,
they chartered, they laughed. II strange
Wheeling might be called a laugh; aud
when the wine sent their icy blood in warn:
er pulses through their veins, they talked of
the past as il il were but yesterday that had
slipped by lhem-and OF The future as if il
were busy century that lay before them.
They were Just the number for quiet rub
Der OF whist and for three successive years
they sat down to one. The fourth came, and
then their rubber was played with an open
dummy fifth, and whist was no longer
practicable; two could play only at cribbase,
and cribbage was the game. But 1t was little
more than the mockery of play. Their pal
sled hands could hardly hold, or their faded
sight distinguish the cards, while their tor
pid faculties made them doze each deal.
AT length came the last dinner, and the sur
vivor Of the twelve, upon whose head four
score and ten winters had showered their snow,
ate his solitary meal. 1t so Glanced that it
was in. his house, and at his table, they had
celebrated the first. In his cellar, too, had re
manned for ffty-eight years the bottle they
that day to uncork again. 1t stood beside |
him; with feeble and reluctant grasp he |
took the frail memorial of a youthful vow, and
fa,,bf,,l 70 hor Of
flee. She threw open her long vista Of buried
years; and his heart travelled through them
all. Their lusty and blithesome spring-their
bright and feryid summer--their ripe and
temperate autumn-their chill but not too
frozen winter. He saw, as in mirror, how
one by one the laughing companions of the !
merry hour at Richmond had dropped into
eternity.
He felt all the loneliness of his condition,
(for he had eschewed marriage, and in the
veins of no living creature ran drop of blood
whose source was in his own } and as he !
drained glass which he filed "to the memo
ry Of those who were gOne," the tears slowly
trickled down the deep burrows of his aged
face.
He had thus fulfilled one part of his VOW,
and he prepared himselfto discharge the 9TH
er, by sitting the usual number of hours at his
desolate table. With a heavy heart he re-
signed himselfto the gloom of his own thoughts
"a lethargic sleep stole over him-hs head
fell upon his bosom-coniused images crowd
ed into his mind, lie babbled by himself-was
silent-and when his servant entered the room.
alarmed by noise which he heard, he found
his master stretched upon the carpet at the
foot of the easy chair, and out of which he had
slipped in an apoplectic fit. He never spoke
again, nor once opened his eyes though the Vi
tai spark was not still extinct till the following
day. And this was the last dinner.