was.' At other times he would fancy himself talking, as it seemed,
to children and such like--his relatives, I suppose--and giving
them good advice--would talk to them a long while. All the time he
was out of his head not one single bad word or idea escaped him.
It was remarked that many a man's conversation in his senses was
not half so good as Frank's delirium. He seemed quite willing to
die--he had become weak and had suffered a good deal, and was
quite resigned, poor boy! I do not know his past life, but I feel
as if it must have been good; at any rate, what I saw of him here
under the most trying circumstances, with a painful wound, and
among strangers, I can say that he behaved so brave, so composed,
and so sweet and affectionate, it could not be surpassed.... I
thought perhaps a few words, though from a stranger, about your
son, from one who was with him at the last, might be worth while,
for I loved the young man, though I but saw him immediately to
lose him."

The grammar here is all wrong, but observe the profound goodness of
the writer; he hides nothing he knows that bereaved mother wants to
know about her Frank, her boy; and he tells her everything essential
with rude and noble tenderness, just as though the woman's sorrowing
eyes were on his face. It is a beautiful letter, bald as it is, and I
commend the style to writers on all subjects, even though a
schoolmaster could pick the syntax to pieces.




II.