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XIX.
The evening of March 25th was an intensely interesting one to me. It was passed with the
President alone in his study, marked by no interruptions.
Busy with pen and papers when I entered, he presently threw them aside, and commenced talking again about
Shakspeare.
Little Tad coming in, he sent him to the library for a copy of the plays, from which he read aloud several of his favorite passages.
Relapsing into a sadder strain, he laid the book aside, and leaning back in his chair, said, “There is a poem that has been a great favorite with me for years, to which my attention was first called when a young man, by a friend, and which I afterward saw and cut from a newspaper, and carried in my pocket, till by frequent reading I had it by heart.
I would give a great deal,” he added, “to know who wrote it, but I never could ascertain.”
Then, half closing his eyes, he repeated the poem, “Oh!
Why should the spirit of mortal be proud?”
Surprised and delighted, I told him that I should greatly prize a copy of the lines.
He replied that he had recently written them out for
Mrs. Stanton, but promised that when a favorable opportunity occurred he would give them to me.
Varying the subject, he continued: “There are some quaint, queer verses, written, I think, by
Oliver Wendell Holmes, entitled, ‘The Last Leaf,’ ”
