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[476] brought to him, if it were not too much trouble; for he said it would seem pleasant, and like old times, to have Hannah's company. So his wife ate with him, as long as he was able to partake of food. A china bird, which a ransomed slave had given to his daughter, when she was a little girl, was placed on the mantel-piece, because he liked to look at it. A visitor, to whom he made this remark one day, replied, ‘It must be very pleasant to you now to remember how many unfortunate beings you have helped.’ He looked up, and answered with frank simplicity, ‘Yes, it is pleasant.’

He made continual efforts to conceal that he was in pain. When they asked why he was so often singing to himself, he replied, ‘If I didn't sing, I should groan.’ Even as late as the day before he died, he indulged in some little ‘Cheeryble’ pleasantries, evidently intended to enliven those who were nearly exhausted by their long attendance on him. At this period, his son-in-law, James S. Gibbons, wrote to me thus: ‘Considering his long bodily weakness, now ten weeks, he is in an extraordinary state of mental strength and clearness. Reminiscences are continually falling from his lips, like leaves in autumn from an old forest tree; not indeed green, but rich in the colors that are of the tree, and characteristic. Thou hast known him in the extraordinary vigor and freshness of his old age; cheating ’

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