thout going doggedly about it." I find
that a good many studious men are doing the same thing. I asked Bryant
how much time he gave, and he said, "Three quarters of an hour." After
that, at least in his summer home, he is upon his feet almost as much
as a cat, and about as nimbly. With his thin and wiry frame, and simple
habits, he is likely to live to a greater age than anybody I know. [Mr.
Bryant and my father were about of an age. They had known each other
almost from boyhood, and their friendship had matured with time.
The sudden death of the poet in 1878, from causes that seemed almost
accidental, was a great and unexpected blow to the survivor, then
himself in feeble health. M. E. D.]

[54] I shall add a word about the healthfulness of these exercises,
since it is partly my design in this sketch to give the fruits of my
experience. It is true one cannot argue for everybody from his own case.
Nevertheless, I am persuaded that this morning exercise and the inuring
would greatly promote the general health. "Catching cold" is a serious
item in the lives of many people. One, two, or three months of every
year they have a cold. For thirty years I have bathed in cold water and
taken the air-bath every morning; and in all that time, I think, I have
had but three colds, and I know where and how I got these, and that they
might have been avoided.

But I have wandered far from my ground, Boston, and my first residence
there. I was Dr. Channing's guest for the first month or two, and then
and afterwards knew all his family, consisting of three brothers and
two sisters. They were not people of wealth or show, but something much
better. Henry lived in retirement in the country, not having an aptitude
for business, but a sensible person in other respects. George was
an auctioneer, but left business and became a very ardent missionary
preacher; and Walter was a respectable physician. William was placed in
easy circumstances by his marriage. Their sister Lucy, Mrs. Russel of
New York, told me that she was very much amused one day by something
that her brother William said to Walter. "Walter," he said, "I think
we are a very [55] prosperous family. There is Henry, he is a very
excellent man. And George, why, George has come out a great spiritual
man. And you, you know how you are getting along. And as for me, I do
what I can. I think we are a very prosperous family."

Mrs. Russel was a person of great sense, of strong, quiet thou