St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-06-30

My Friend: You ask for an hour.
| have now but fifteen minutes, yet
will endeavOr to say something.
The loss of my boy makes a great
change in my feelings, plans and pros
poets. The joy of my life was cOmpre-
hended in his, and do not now feel
that any personal object can strongly
move me henceforth. | had thought
of buying a country place but it was
for him; had begun to love flowers
and beautiful objects because he liked
them. Now all that deeply concerns
me is the evidence that we shall live
hereafter, and especially that we shall
live with and know those we loved
here. The rest seems subordinate and
tntiing. | mean to act my part while
life is spared me, but no longer covet
length of days. If | felt sure on the
point of identifying and being with
our loved ones in the world to come, |
would prefer not to live long. AS it is
| am resigned to whatever may be Di-
vinely ordered.
am not often sad, and suffer little.
| feel none of that eating away of the
heart which atflicts my poor wife, and
makes me apprehend that she will not
live long. She has cried very little,
and laid our darling in his coffin, after
thoroughly washing him, with dry
eyes. We had but few hours to pre-
pare for our loss. He went to bed as
hearty and happy as ever; at . Il. M,
he wanted to get up, but went directly
back to bed, complaining of no sick
ness; Il little past three he called
again, and soon the purging and vom-
iting commenced in earnest, but we
stopped this at 8, and did not feel
that he was in danger till about p. m,
and at he died His mother had
bought him a fiddle the day before,
which delighted him beyond measure,
and he was only induced to lay it up
at night by his delight at the idea of
coming up i'll the morning and surpris-
ing me by playing on it before | got
up. In the morning, at daylight, was
called to his bedside; the next day
followed him to his grave! You can
not guess how golden and lovely his
long hair (never cut) looked in the cof-
fin.
We have lost four out of five children,
and have only an infant left. Our last
girl was six months old the other two
were infants. Pickle was five years
old last March. So much grace and
wit and poetry were rarely or never
blended i'll so young a child, and to us
his form and features were the perfec-
ton of beauty. We can never have
another child, and life cannot be long
enough to efface, though it will temper
this sorrow. 1t differs in kind as well
as degree from that we have heretofore
experienced.
For the present my prevailing senti-
ment is that of some adventurous Cor
tez or Pizarro, who has burned his
ships and most of his baggage on an
inhospitable shore, and feels he can
henceforth advance freely. do not
feel that have heretofore been dere-
lict, but hereafter feel confident that
no fear of personal consequences can
deter me from doing my duty. The
road before me seems hilly and heavy,
and have less strength than | had,
but | shall swing my pack soon and
face those | meet with as blithe cOun-
tenance as ever. Kind regards to Mrs.
Randall. Yours,
HORACE GREELEY.
p. 81 wrote a full account of our
disaster to friend, and will let you
read it sometime if you wish.