and
ninety-two.

The Americans, by their wisdom and bravery, had won their
independence.

The Squire had done his part for his country by furnishing money,
and by making his large retired mansion an asylum for all his
friends who were in want of it.

He was now seventy years old; and a haler, heartier, more serene old
man was never seen. His house was the summer rendezvous of all his
young and his old friends.

Well do I remember one beautiful afternoon, just before sunset, the
Squire's going to the glass, and adjusting me nicely, and then going
to the door, and looking up through the avenue of elms which were
young trees when I was first carried there, and saying, "It is time
my niece and her husband and children were here."

In a few minutes, a carriage appeared with a lady and her son and
daughter in it. That little girl, then five years old, was
afterwards the mother of our little friend asleep yonder.

Never was there a more cordial welcome given to friends than the
good Squire gave them, and never was welcome more acceptable.

There were other friends in the house, and such frolicking and
laughing and dancing on the lawn you seldom see nowadays.

For many years, the nieces and nephews and their children and
children's children came in this way to refresh body and soul at
their good uncle's; till childhood blossomed into youth, and youth
began to strengthen into maturity, and maturity to fade away into
age. Years gathered around the old man's head, but his vigor
remained.

You need not bounce in that way, my friend musket, and you, Messrs.
tea-kettle and pitcher, need not try to turn up the noses you have
lost, at my using these flowery expressions. Remember that, for more
than half a century, I dwelt upon a human head. It is natural that I
should have gained something from it, and that I should speak
somewhat as human beings speak.

I hope you will pardon my talkativeness; and, even if you think me
prosy, let me go on after my own fashion, and finish my story in my
own way, for I am very old, and can speak in no other way. Remember,
too, I shall never speak to you again."

"Go on, go on," cried the old coat, cloak, and baize gown.

The rest made no objection, and so the wig continued. "I assure you
it was a very interesting thing to me to witness the changes that
were going on among the Squire's visitors. I saw that child's mother
come, first as a young lady, then as a bride, then as a mother; and