.
Meeker is already an old man of seventy, but by no means infirm. His
days have been cheerful and serene, and his countenance exhibits that
contented expression which a happy old age produces.

A happy old age--how few of the few who reach the period enjoy _that_!
Mr. Meeker's life has been unselfish and genuine; already he reaps his
reward.

Mrs. Meeker, too, is twenty-three years older than when we first made
her acquaintance. She is now over sixty. She still possesses her fair
proportions; indeed, she has grown somewhat stouter with advancing
years. Her face is sleek and comely, but the expression has not
improved. When she wishes to appear amiable, she greets you with the
same pleasing smile as ever; but if you watch her features as they
relapse into their natural repose, you will discover a discontented,
dissatisfied air, which has become habitual. Why? Mrs. Meeker has met
with no reverses or serious disappointments in the daily routine of her
life. But, alas! its sum total presents no satisfactory consequences.
She has become, though unconscious of it, weary of the changeless
formality of her religious duties, performed as a ceaseless task,
without any real spirit or true devotion. Year after year has run its
course and carried her along, through early womanhood into mature life,
on to the confines of age. What has she for all those years? Nothing but
disquiet and solicitude, and a vague anxiety, without apparent cause or
satisfactory object.

As they advance in age, Mr. and Mrs. Meeker exhibit less sympathy in
each other's thoughts and views and feelings. By degrees and
instinctively the gulf widens between them--until it becomes impassable.
Everything goes on quietly and decorously, but there is no sense of
united destiny, no pleasurable desire for a union beyond the grave.

The children are scattered; the daughters are all married. Jane and
Laura have gone 'West,' and Mary is living in Hartford. Doctor Frank we
will give an account of presently. George is a practical engineer, and
is employed on the Erie canal. William, who was to remain at home and
manage the farm, is married, and lives in a small house not far off. His
mother would permit no 'daughter-in-law' with her. She did not like the
match. William had fallen in love with a very superior girl,
fine-looking and amiable, but not possessed of a penny. Besides, she
belonged to the Methodist church, a set who believed in falling from
grace! Mrs. Meeker