When the shore was solitary, I have found a pleasure that seemed even
to exalt my mind, in observing the sports or contentions of two gulls,
as they wheeled and hovered about each other, with hoarse screams, one
moment flapping on the foam of the wave, and then soaring aloft, till
their white bosoms melted into the upper sunshine. In the calm of the
summer sunset, I drag my aged limbs, with a little ostentation of
activity, because I am so old, up to the rocky brow of the hill.
There I see the white sails of many a vessel, outward bound or
homeward from afar, and the black trail of a vapor behind the eastern
steamboat; there, too, is the sun, going down, but not in gloom, and
there the illimitable ocean mingling with the sky, to remind me of
eternity.

But sweetest of all is the hour of cheerful musing and pleasant talk,
that comes between the dusk and the lighted candle, by my glowing
fireside. And never, even on the first Thanksgiving night, when Susan
and I sat alone with our hopes, nor the second, when a stranger had
been sent to gladden us, and be the visible image of our affection,
did I feel such joy as now. All that belong to me are here; Death has
taken none, nor Disease kept them away, nor Strife divided them from
their parents or each other; with neither poverty nor riches to
disturb them, nor the misery of desires beyond their lot, they have
kept New England's festival round the patriarch's board. For I am a
patriarch! Here I sit among my descendants, in my old arm-chair and
immemorial corner, while the firelight throws an appropriate glory
round my venerable frame. Susan! My children! Something whispers
me, that this happiest hour must be the final one, and that nothing
remains but to bless you all, and depart with a treasure of
recollected joys to heaven. Will you meet me there? Alas! your