472

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

and scarred with the campaigns of life, and marked with their grf&
and defeats, and would give me no upliftings of spirit.

An old gentleman, out on an early morning walk, came ak»»
and we discussed the weather, and then drifted into other matters,
I eould not remember his face. He said he had been living be»
twenty-eight years. So he had come after my time, and I had nerar
seen him before. I asked him various questions; first about a mate
of mine in Sunday school—what became of him 1

(He graduated with honour in an Eastern college, wandered o|

into the world soa».
where, succeeded at
nothing, passed oat
of knowledge aad
memory years ago,
and is supposed to
have gone to tbe
dogs.'

* He was brigl^
and promised TO|
when he was a boy.'

'Yes, but t&j
thing that happened
is what became cf
it all.*

I asked afe
another lad, alto-
gether the brightest
in our village scboal
when I was a boy.

* He, too, -was

graduated with honours, from an Eastern college \ but life wHppei
him in every battle, straight along, and he died in one of the Tern*
tories, years ago, a defeated man.'

I asked after another of the bright boys.
* He is a success, always has been, always will be, I think.'
1 inqxtired after a young fellow who came to the town to
for one of the professions when I was a boy.

THE DAYS OP LONG AGO.