ne house for over twenty
years, in Montgomery Place, near Bromfield Street. Holmes says of it, in
"The Professor at the Breakfast Table:"--

"When he entered that door, two shadows glided over the threshold;
five lingered in the doorway when he passed through it for the last
time,--and one of the shadows was claimed by its owner to be longer
than his own. What changes he saw in that quiet place! Death rained
through every roof but his; children came into life, grew into
maturity, wedded, faded away, threw themselves away; the whole
drama of life was played in that stock-company's theatre of a dozen
houses, one of which was his, and no deep sorrow or severe calamity
ever entered his dwelling. Peace be to those walls forever, for the
many pleasant years he passed in them."

The three children born to him were Oliver Wendell, Amelia Jackson, and
Edward. They all live near the old home, and the second generation is
beginning to be a prominent factor in the family affairs. The daughter
is Mrs. John T. Sargent, of Beverly Farms, near Boston, where Dr. Holmes
has passed the summer months for several years past. All readers will
remember the Doctor's famous "Hunt after the Captain," published in the
"Atlantic" during the war, and the thrilling interest the country took
in it. The "Captain" was the elder son, then just graduated from
Harvard, and belonging to the Fourth Battalion of Infantry. He was
thrice wounded, and the terror and anxiety of his friends at home cannot
be described in words. He is now an associate justice of the Supreme
Court of Massachusetts.

For a few years Dr. Holmes was much in demand as a lecturer; but he
never enjoyed that business very well, and after a while refused to go
upon any terms. In 1856 he thus defined his terms to an applicant for a
lecture:--

"My terms, when I stay over night, are fifteen dollars and
expenses, a room with a fire in it, in a public-house, and a
mattress to sleep on,--not a feather-bed. As you write in your
individual capacity, I tell you at once all my habitual exigencies.
I am afraid to sleep in a cold room; I can't sleep on a
feather-bed; I will not go to private houses."

In the "Autocrat" there is an account of his lecturing experiences by
the landlady, which gives a pretty good idea of some of his personal
traits:--

"He was a man who loved to stick around home, as much as any c