pet Boston ship, because she had been built at a Boston
shipyard, had been sailed with Yankee crews, and, more than once, had
brought her prizes into Boston Harbor.

We used to spout at school:

"Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Spread every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!"

Ah me! There had been a Phi Beta anniversary not long before, where
Holmes had delivered a poem. You may read "Poetry, a Metrical Essay,"
in the volumes now. But you will look in vain for the covert allusions
to Julia and Susan and Elizabeth and the rest, which, to those who
knew, meant the choicest belles of our little company. Have the queens
of to-day any such honors?

Nobody is more accessible than Doctor Holmes. I doubt if any doorbell
in Boston is more rung than his. And nowhere is the visitor made more
kindly at home. His own work-room takes in all the width of a large
house in Beacon Street; a wide window commands the sweep of the mouth
of Charles River; in summer the gulls are hovering above it, in winter
you may see them chaffing together on bits of floating ice, which is
on its way to the sea. Across that water, by stealthy rowing, the
boats of the English squadron carried the men who were to die at
Concord the next day, at Concord Bridge. Beyond is Bunker Hill
Monument; and just this side of the monument Paul Revere crossed the
same river to say that that English army was coming.

[Illustration: O. W. HOLMES'S BIRTH-PLACE AT CAMBRIDGE, MASS., ERECTED IN
1725, A.D. FROM PHOTO BY WILFRID A. FRENCH.]

For me, I had to deliver on Emerson's ninetieth birthday an address on
my memories of him and his life. Holmes used to meet him, from college
days down, in a thousand ways, and has written a charming memoir of
his life. I went round there one day, therefore, to ask some
questions, which might put my own memories of Emerson in better light,
and afterwards I obtained his leave to make this sketch of the talk of
half an hour. When we think of it here, if we ever fall to talking
about such things, every one would say that Holmes is the best talker
we have or know. But when you are with him, you do not think whether
he is or is not. You are under the spell of his kindness and genius.
Still no minute passes in which you do not say to yourself: "I hope I
shall remember those very words always."

[Illustration: GARDEN DOOR OF THE CAMBRIDGE HOUSE.]

Thinking of it after I come home,