The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-01-01
\ CUApTrR V,-The H,U'Slde

IL was one OF the very brightest and breezl
est of summer mornings that the Doctor and
myself walked homeward from the town poor.
house, where he had always one or more pa.
tents and whore his coming was always wei
coined by the poor, diseased, and age-stricker
inmates. Dark, miserable faces of lonely and
unreyerenced age, written over with the grim
records of sorrow and sin, seemed to brighten
at his approach as with an inward light as il
the good mans presence had power to call the
better natures of the poor unfortunates into
temporary ascendency. Weary, fretful wo-
,'.4t .-.-l. ~,
orfancc, nan century Deiofe-reit tiie,r 1ieoS,s
- - ga .., = : ~ i.v5Ssx ~ !!
kind salutations, and the ever-pationt good ma
ture with which he listened TO their reiterated
complaints of real or imaginary suffering
However it might be with others, he never for
got the man or the woman in the pauper
There was nothing like condesoension or con
sciousness in his charitable ministrations fol
he was one of the few men have ever known
| in whom the milk of human kindness was
never soured by contempt for humanity in
whatever form it presented itself Thus it was
that his faithful performance of the duties OF
his profession, however repulsive and Disagree
able, had the effect of MurillO's picture of st,
Isabel Of Hungary binding up the ulcered
limbs Of the beggars. The moral beauty
transcribed the loathsomeness of physical evil
and deformity.
Our nearest route home lay across the pas
lures and over Burberry hill, just at the foot
of which We encountered Elder Staples and
Skipper Evans who had been driving their
cows to pasture, and were now leisurcy stroll
ing back to the village. We toled together
up the hill in the hot sunshine, and just on its
eastern declivity, were glad to find white oak
tree, leaning heavily over n little ravine, from
the bottom of which a clear spring Of water
| dubbed up and fed n small rivulet, whose
track of darker green might be traced far dowr
the hill to the meadow at its foot
| A broad shelf of rock by the side of tn
spring, enshrined with MOSES, afforded us
comfortable resting place. passon Staples i
his faded black coat and white neckclotl
leaned his quiet, contemplative head ON hi
silver-mounted cane; right opposite him 50
the Doctor with his sturdy rotund figure, an
broad, scanned face, surmounted by coars
stubble Of iron-gray hair, the sharp and aImos
severe expression of his keen gray eyes fashin,
under their dark penthouse, happily relieved
by the softer lines of his mouth indicative o.
his really genial and generous nature. A
small sinewy figure, half doubled up, with his
chin resting on his rough palms, Skipper
Evans sat on lower projection of the rock
just beneath him, in an attentive attitude, as
at the feet of Gamalie Dark and dry as one
OF his own dnn-fish on Labrador flake or a
seal skin in an Esquimaux hut, he seemed en-
tirely exempt from one of the great trinity of
temptations and, granting him safe deliver
ance from the World and the Devil, he had
very little to fear from the Flesh
We were now in the Doctors favorite place
of resort green, cool quiet and slightly withal.
The keen light revealed every object in the
cosy valley below us the fresh west wind fiut.
tered the oak leaves above, and the low voice
OF the water, coaxing or scoldng its way over
bare roots or NOISY stones, was just audible
Doctor" said |, /" this spring, with the oak
hanging over it, is, ! suppose, your fountain of
Bandasia. You remember what H0facc SAYS
of his spring, which yielded such cool refresh
ment when the dog-star had set the day ON
fire. What fine picture he gives us of this
charming feature of his little farm %
The Doctors eye kinded Pm glad to see
you like Horace; not merely as clever sati-
rist and writer Of amatory odes, but as true
lover of Nature. How pleasant are his simple
and beautiful descriptions of his yellow flow
ing Tiber the herds and herdsmcn, the har
vesters, the grape vintage, the varied aspects of
his Sabine retreat in the fierce summer heats.
or when the snowy forehead Of Soracte pur-
pied in winter sunsets Scattered through his
odes and the occasional poems which he ad-
dresses to his city friends you find these grace
ful and inimitable touches of rural beauty, each
a picture in itself"
+" 1t is long since have looked at my old
scbool-day companions, the classics" said
Elder Staples; but | remember Horace only IA
a light witty, careless Epicurean, famous for
his lyrics in praise of Facrnian wine and ques.
tionable women
" Somewhat too much Of that, doubtless"
said the Doctor; "but TO me Horace is serious.
and profoundly suggestive, nevertheless Had
| laid him aside on quitting college rs you did
should perhaps have only remembered such
Of his Epieurean lyrics rs recommended them.
selves to the warm fancy Of boyhood All
Elder Staples, there was time when the
Lyces and Glyccras Of the poet were no fiction
to US. They played blind mans buff with us
in the farmers kitchen, sang with us in the
and romped and laughed with
us at huskings and quiltng-parties Grand.
mothers and sober spinsters rs they now are,
the change in us is perhaps greater than in
themo
"Too true" replied the Elder, the smile
which had just played over his pale face,
fading into something sadder than its habitual
melancholy. "Thc living companions of our
youth, whom we daily meet, are more strange
TO US than the dead in yonder graveyard
They alone remain Unchanged
Speaking Of Horace continued the Doc
tor, in voice slightly husky with feeling, che
gives us glowing descriptions Of bis winter cir