perous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see
her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father,
aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his
healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man, so long their
friend, in ten years' time enriching them with all he has, and passing
tranquilly to his reward.

"I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of
their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping
for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband,
their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I
know that each was not more honored and held sacred in the other's
soul than I was in the souls of both.

"I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man
winning his way up in that path of life which was once mine. I see him
winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the
light of his. I see blots I threw upon it faded away, I see him,
foremost of just judges and honored men, bringing a boy of my name,
with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place--then fair
to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurement--and I hear
him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is
a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

II

BOB SAWYER'S PARTY[28]

When the last "natural" had been declared, and the profit and loss
account of fish and sixpences adjusted, to the satisfaction of all
parties, Mr. Bob Sawyer rang for supper, and the visitors squeezed
themselves into corners while it was getting ready.

[Footnote 28: From Chapter XXXI of "The Posthumous Papers of the
Pickwick Club."]

It was not so easily got ready as some people may imagine. First of
all, it was necessary to awaken the girl, who had fallen asleep with
her face on the kitchen table; this took a little time, and, even when
she did answer the bell, another quarter of an hour was consumed in
fruitless endeavors to impart to her a faint and distant glimmering of
reason. The man to whom the order for the oysters had been sent, had
not been told to open them; it is a very difficult thing to open an
oyster with a limp knife or a two-pronged fork, and very little was
done in this way. Very little of the beef was done either; and the ham
(which was also from t