On inquiry, however, I found
that the somewhat solemn look which I had noticed was indeed a
professional one, but not clerical. He was a young undertaker, who had
just succeeded to a thriving business. Things, I believe, are going on
well at this time of writing, and I am glad for the landlady's daughter
and her mother. Sextons and undertakers are the cheerfullest people in
the world at home, as comedians and circus-clowns are the most melancholy
in their domestic circle.
As our old boarding-house is still in existence, I do not feel at liberty
to give too minute a statement of the present condition of each and all
of its inmates. I am happy to say, however, that they are all alive and
well, up to this time. That amiable old gentleman who sat opposite to me
is growing older, as old men will, but still smiles benignantly on all
the boarders, and has come to be a kind of father to all of them,--so
that on his birthday there is always something like a family festival.
The Poor Relation, even, has warmed into a filial feeling towards him,
and on his last birthday made him a beautiful present, namely, a very
handsomely bound copy of Blair's celebrated poem, "The Grave.
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