Harry Bingham. if he meant to stand so that no power should move him from his post." The last time I saw Mr. Bingham to have conversation with him, which was only a few days before his death, his superb figure was sorely diseased and shattered, but his won derful mind shone with unclouded and undiminished beauty and strength. In clos ing, let me reproduce, in its substan tial features, what he said on this oc casion, for it illustrates several char acteristics to which I have referred. It illustrates the teachings of his philosophy of living and dying. It illustrates the accu racy of his memory. It illustrates his quaint humor, and it illustrates his patience and his thoughtfulness. He spoke of his age, and said that he had outlived by many years the period of three score years and ten allotted to man, that seventy-seven of these years had been comfortable and convenient, and that while the last two had been uncomforta ble and painful, he ought not to complain. "And," said he, "while I am helpless, and while I am a burden to myself and to others, and while it is best that I should go, I shall remain on earth all the days allotted to me, and if you ever hear that I have done any thing to shorten my days, you may know that it was because I was not myself. It is just as important," said he, "that one should die respectably as it is that one should live respectably," thus exhibiting more than the Roman spirit of another who, when informed that he must die, replied, "I like it well, I shall die before my heart is soft, and before I have said anything unworthy of myself." At this time I had just returned from my camp at the lakes, and to divert his mind I referred to my good luck with the rod. He asked me whether I fished on the lakes or on the brooks or rivers. I told him that I had my best luck on a little pond called Jaquith's pond; and, thinking that I might interest him by telling him something that he did not know, related that, according to tradition, years ago. a strange old man by the name of Jaquith went a mile or more into the un
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broken wilderness and cleared up a few acres of land near this pond, where alone he spent a considerable portion of his time for many years, frequently journeying through the north country driving a steer and a heifer. "Oh," said he, taking up the story, "I re member old Jaquith very well. The first time I ever saw him was in the winter of the year that I was eight years old. Our home was in Concord, Vt. I was reading a book in the kitchen, and mother was at work. Old Jaquith drove into the yard with a heifer and a steer harnessed to a sled. There were boards around the platform of the sled, and a little straw, a few sheep, and two or three pigs upon a platform. He came to the door and entered with out rapping, and as I remember him he was rather a marked looking man, some what advanced in years, and without further introduction, he said, 'I am a preacher; I preach for a living. I preach the Gospel of St. Paul, and I preach after the manner of St. Paul. I preach an hour for a quarter of a dollar, a half hour for fifteen cents, and a quarter of an hour for ten cents;' and mother, who was busy, evidently did not catch what he first said, and inquired, 'What is it you do for that?' And he repeated, 'I am a preacher; I preach for a living. I preach the Gospel of St. Paul, and I preach after the manner of St. Paul. I preach an hour for a quarter of a dollar, a half hour for fifteen cents, and a quarter of an hour for ten cents. And, I for got to say, that I take my pay in hay for my cattle and sheep, or in potatoes for my pigs.' Mother hesitated, and I never quite made up my mind whether it was because she was short of hay and potatoes, or whether she felt it would be trifling with a sacred subject. But, boy-fashion, I rather encouraged the preaching, and mother said, 'Well, you may preach for us for a while, and we will pay you in potatoes.' He went out to the sled and brought in a large iron kettle and set it down on the kitchen floor, raised his hand and head reverently, and was about to begin, when his hand fell, and he said, 'I forgot to
