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A Place In Thy Memory

Creator: S.H. DeKroyft (author)
Date: 1854
Publisher: John F. Trow, New York
Source: Available at selected libraries

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153  

Many days Cousin Will and I have wandered together in the woods, and under the old elm tree, a little back of the house, read poetry hours together, until his speaking eyes saw beauty in every thing. Now, we wandered over the same grounds, he guiding me, where long ago I led him. *****

154  

Long Island, Water Cure, Aug. 30, 1848.

155  

IT was a chance breeze that blew us together, and Monday morning the same bore us apart. We met as strangers always meet, but our spirits came very soon to know each other; we talked freely, you were very kind, and I of course liked you for that. Next I learned to esteem you, for I thought you just and good. I fancied a native love of right, interwoven with every lineament of your noble features, and expressed in every air of your manly bearing. In short, from our little acquaintance, I have gathered the impression that you are a generous, high-souled nature, that you had rather lay down your life than condescend to a wrong act. I prize your friendship, and evermore, if it be your pleasure, I will count you in the list of my corresponding friends. Let the world frown ever so darkly, or prosperity smile ever so charmingly, it will be all the same; in my confidence and simple affections there will ever be a place for you; and as you said in your good-by to Mrs. H---, "once in a very long time think just a little of me," so I will say to you. Think of me only when you can get no subject of thought more engaging, or find feelings to share more congenial. Could you have looked back on us the day after you left, and beheld what a gap your departure made in our circle, I think you would have acknowledged yourself complimented, if not a little flattered. Every time the ladies met they regretted your departure, but the gentlemen sat round in the piazza grinning, as if they were glad of it. That little Swede has so stepped into the good graces of the young ladies, that they have nearly adopted him Beau General, in your place. He has told me many little incidents of his history which interest me much. Since he has been in our country, he has supported his aged father by his hard earnings, the poor man meantime supposing his son amassing a fortune in the New World. He knew the Bremers, and his accounts of them are very pleasing.

156  

Dr. R--- plays matron this week, and the patients do nothing but brag of their fare, and say no more about going away. We have such excellent bread and delicious griddle-cakes; and such magnificent mush, so coarse ground, the kernels must have been cracked three into one. You write very enticingly of the City, but you have no sea breeze there, no hills to gaze upon, no Sound, no beautiful bay and woods with sleeping lakes among; no brooks where to wander, or hills to climb.

157  

I received a note from my good friend Mr. D ---, to-day, from which I infer he has not received mine by you. Please get it to him as soon as convenient. Kind regards to your fun-making brother. May he always be merry as now -- oh no, I will take that back. Reverses and disappointments make us considerate. We are here to be prepared for another life, and the course best for us our Heavenly Father will mark out, and thither our footsteps must fall. Be wise, be good, be truthful to thyself, and fear God, that thou mayest be happy here, and numbered with the blest hereafter.

158  

P. S. The long road you taught us over the hill, Kate and I walk three times every day; often stopping on the brow of it, to roll the stones far below. Then we trudge on, talking sometimes delightedly and sometimes sadly. Do not indulge too freely in those good things, or you will have to return here, where you know self-denial is not only a virtue but part of the treatment.

159  

Yesterday a party of us sailed up the Sound and passed an hour in the house where General Washington, soon after the war in his tour of Long Island, stopped over night with his friend Daniel Young. A son of the same gentleman resides there still, but his head is covered with the "garniture of the grave," and like the roof that shelters him, he must soon fall to the earth.

160  

Long Island Water Cure, Aug. 1848.

161  

MY GOOD FRIEND MR. D.: -- I have waited these many days hoping to find a hand long enough above water to write you. The sail in company with your excellent friend, Vice Chancellor McC. and Mrs. N., (to whom he introduced me soon after you left,) was delightful indeed. The briny air of the Sound was free and bracing, and over those peaches our chat was more like the meeting of familiar friends, than the growing converse of strangers.

162  

Dr. S. met me at the landing, as you and he had arranged, and his cordial reception quite banished all my fears. It was the same at the house; indeed they all seemed to know me, and as they gathered round, one after another, for introductions, I verily thought myself breathing a new atmosphere, and shaking hands with the people from a climate at least forty degrees warmer than Institution latitude. Pardon my detail, but I wish to tell you as much as possible of the kindness of Dr. S. He seated me at table next himself, directly opposite Mrs. N., and every attention possible has so far been paid me.

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