at follows in a foot-track
of its own will have it that the water to which others think they are
hastening is a mirage, not the less has it been true in all ages and for
human beings of every creed which recognized a future, that those who
have fallen worn out by their march through the Desert have dreamed at
least of a River of Life, and thought they heard its murmurs as they lay
dying.

The change from the clinging to the present to the welcoming of the
future comes very soon, for the most part, after all hope of life is
extinguished, provided this be left in good degree to Nature, and not
insolently and cruelly forced upon those who are attacked by illness,
on the strength of that odious foreknowledge often imparted by science,
before the white fruit whose core is ashes, and which we call death,
has set beneath the pallid and drooping flower of sickness. There is a
singular sagacity very often shown in a patient's estimate of his own
vital force. His physician knows the state of his material frame well
enough, perhaps,--that this or that organ is more or less impaired or
disintegrated; but the patient has a sense that he can hold out so much
longer,--sometimes that he must and will live for a while, though by the
logic of disease he ought to die without any delay.

The Little Gentleman continued to fail, until it became plain that his
remaining days were few. I told the household what to expect. There was
a good deal of kind feeling expressed among the boarders, in various
modes, according to their characters and style of sympathy. The
landlady was urgent that he should try a certain nostrum which had saved
somebody's life in jest sech a case. The Poor Relation wanted me to
carry, as from her, a copy of "Allein's Alarm," etc. I objected to the
title, reminding her that it offended people of old, so that more than
twice as many of the book were sold when they changed the name to "A
Sure Guide to Heaven." The good old gentleman whom I have mentioned
before has come to the time of life when many old men cry easily, and
forget their tears as children do.--He was a worthy gentleman,--he
said,--a very worthy gentleman, but unfortunate,--very unfortunate.
Sadly deformed about the spine and the feet. Had an impression that the
late Lord Byron had some malformation of this kind. Had heerd there was
something the matter with the ankle-j'ints of that nobleman, but he was
a man of talents. This gentleman seemed to be a man of t