him.

Then came an awful explosion, and nothing remained of the
Lucy Walker but scattered fragments. Most of the negro crew
were blown to atoms, about forty passengers were killed, and
nearly all the rest more or less injured. Vann's body was
found, horribly mangled.

YOUTHFUL ROMANCE OF THE QUAKER POET.

WHY WHITTIER NEVER MARRIED.

Story of His Affection for Miss Downing
and the Sudden and Unexplained
Break in Their Relations.

The article on "World-Famous Bachelors," in the April SCRAP BOOK, has led
a New Jersey reader to call our attention to the early romance of John G.
Whittier's life. Why Whittier remained a bachelor was not generally known
until the death, at the age of eighty-five, of the only sweetheart he ever
had--Elizabeth Bray Downing, of West Newbury, Massachusetts.

Whittier met Miss Downing at East Haverhill, Massachusetts,
when he was twenty years of age. They seem to have fallen in
love with each other very quickly, but it was not long
before they suddenly parted, for some reason never
explained. One rumor had it that the coming poet decided
that he could not marry because he had to provide for his
mother. However that may be, they rarely met thereafter, and
both remained unmarried.

About 1830 Whittier, then twenty-three years of age,
contributed to the _Courier_ of Northampton, Massachusetts,
a poem which is not to be found in any of his published
works. The verses, crude though they are, appear to throw
light on his parting from Miss Downing. The title is: "To
----, by John G. Whittier." We append a few of the stanzas:

I know that I have knelt too lowly
For smiles so oft withdrawn;
That trusting love received too slowly
The lesson of thy scorn;
That thou hast had thy triumph hour
Unquestioned and complete,
When prompted by a spell of power
I knelt me at thy feet.

'Tis over now; the charm is broken,
The feverish dream is fled;
And pass away like thoughts unspoken
The vows that I have said.
I give thee back thy plighted word;
Its tones of love shall be
Like music by the slumberer heard,
A dreamer's melody.

Go now, the light of hope is on thee,
Thy love claims are o'er.
A thousand smiles thy charms have won thee--
They'll win a thousand more;
For beauty hath a charming spell
Upon the