Thomas Wentworth Higginson, John Greenleaf Whittier

It was such communications as these which completed the influence of temperament, and made him appear to the world even more shy than he was. He used to say to Mrs. Claflin:--

“ What does thee think women make such silly speeches to me for? It makes me feel like a fool. A woman said to me yesterday, ‘Mr. Whittier, your smile is a benediction.’ As I was walking across the floor at the Radical Club, a woman stopped me in the middle of the parlour among all the folks, and said, ‘I've long wished to see you, Mr. Whittier, to ask what you thought of the subjective and the objective.’ Why, I thought the woman was crazy, and I said, ‘I don't know anything about either of 'em.’ ”

A young friend asked him one day if Mr. Fields's story were true about the woman who made her way to his library under pretence of conversing with him upon literary topics. “Mr. Fields said her conversation became very personal and tender, and you remarked, ‘I do not understand thee, I do not understand thee; thee had better leave the room.’ Was that really true, Mr. Whittier?” asked the young girl. With a very funny twinkle in his eye, he replied, “Does thee think, Mary, I could treat a lady in so ungentlemanly a manner as that?” That was the only response Mary could elicit.

Shy and self-withdrawing in conversation although Whittier might be, he was never caught at a disadvantage and was always ready with some pithy reply. If he had any one firm rule, it was to avoid making a speech, and yet when, being called on unexpectedly to speak at a private service on the death of Charles Sumner, he rose and told off-hand a story of a Scotch colonel, who, being interred with military honours, had