who he knew would at once return the money, but she came upon
the fact of the remittance by finding Whittier's letter in her husband's
pocket.

Naturally, she was very indignant, but her letter to Whittier returning
the money was couched in the most delicate terms, and gave no hint of
the misery of her life. Until the year of his death she was an
occasional correspondent with the poet, one of his last letters, written
at Hampton Falls in the summer of 1892, being addressed to her. Their
only meeting was at the Haverhill Academy reunion of 1885, fifty-eight
years after the love episode of their school-days.

When they met at Haverhill the poet took the love of his youth apart
from the other schoolmates, and they then exchanged souvenirs, he
receiving her miniature painted on ivory, by Porter, the same artist who
painted the first likeness ever taken of Whittier. This latter miniature
is now in the possession of Mr. Pickard. The portrait of Miss Bray,
representing her in the full flush of her girlish beauty, wearing as a
crown a wreath of roses, was returned to Mrs. Downey after the poet's
death, by the niece of Whittier, into whose possession it came.

Mrs. Downey spent her last days in the family of Judge Bradley, at West
Newbury, Massachusetts. After her death some valuable china of hers was
sold at auction, and several pieces were secured by a neighbour, Mrs.
Ladd. The Ladd family has since taken charge of the Whittier birthplace
at East Haverhill, and by this chain of circumstances Evelina Bray's
china now rests on the Whittier shelves, together with the genuine
Whittier china, put in its old place by Mrs. Pickard.

[Illustration: WHITTIER'S BIRTHPLACE, EAST HAVERHILL, MASS.]

It was not because of destitution that Mrs. Downey made application to
enter the Old Ladies' Home which Whittier endowed, but, because,
cherishing until the day of her death her youthful fondness for the
poet, she longed to live during the sunset time of her life near his
grave. In all probability her request would have been granted, had not
she, too, been suddenly called to the land where there is neither
marriage nor giving in marriage.

THE END.

INDEX

Adams, John, 96.

Adams, Mrs. John, 111.

Adams, Samuel, 119.

Agassiz, Mrs., 290.

Alford, Mrs. A. G., 297.

Allston, 270.

Antigua merchant, 60.

Auburn, Mount, 323.

Bana, Doctor, discovers Deborah Sampson's secret, 181;
sends lette