children.

He was forced to return to New York. It was not many months after
that his daughter heard that he was very ill at Oyster Bay, where he
had gone to a water cure establishment. She went immediately to him,
and remained with him, nursing him, and reading to him, till he was
better, though not well.

During this period, when he was able to bear the fatigue, his
daughter drove him in a gig round the neighboring country; and she
told me that such was his interest in the laborers, that he would
never pass one without stopping, and asking him questions about his
mode of working, &c. He could not speak English; but she was the
interpreter.

At last he insisted upon his daughter's returning to her family.
There was something so solemn, so repressed, in his manner, when he
took leave of her, that she was afterwards convinced that he knew he
should never see her again; but he said not a word of the kind.

His health grew worse; his strength failed daily; and he determined
to return to Germany, so as to die in his native land. He wrote to
his daughter, to ask her, as a proof of her love for him, not to
come to say farewell. She was ill at the time, and submitted with a
sad and aching heart.

She had seen her dear, excellent father for the last time. He lived
to arrive in Hamburg. His workmen, when they heard of his arrival,
went to the vessel, and bore him in their arms to his country house,
where he died eight days afterwards.

He showed his strong and deep love of nature in these his last
hours; for when he was so weak as to be apparently unconscious of
the presence of those he loved, he begged to be carried into his
garden, that he might hear the birds sing, and look upon his flowers
once more.

When he knew he was breathing his last, he said to his children who
were standing around his bed, "Be useful, and love one another."

His death was considered a public calamity in Hamburg. His workmen
felt that they had lost their benefactor and brother. His children
knew that life could never give them another such friend.

His body was placed in the great hall, in his country house, and
surrounded by orange trees in full bloom. Flowers he loved to the
very last; and flowers shed their perfume over the mortal garment of
his great and beautiful soul. One after another, his workmen and his
other friends came and looked at his sweet and noble countenance,
and took a last farewell.

In Germany, when a distinguished