"_Friday._--Longfellow came into luncheon at one o'clock. He was
looking very well;... his beautiful eyes fairly shone. He had been at
Manchester-by-the-Sea the day before to dine with the Curtises. Their
truly romantic and lovely place had left a pleasant picture in his
mind. Coming away by the train, he passed in Chelsea a new soldiers'
monument which suggested an epigram to him that he said, laughingly,
would suit any of the thousand of such monuments to be seen about the
country. He began somewhat in this style:--
"'The soldier asked for bread,
But they waited till he was dead,
And gave him a stone instead,
Sixty and one feet high!'
"We all returned to Cambridge together, and, being early for our own
appointment elsewhere, he carried us into his library and read aloud
'The Marriage of Lady Wentworth.' E----, with pretty girlish ways and
eyes like his own, had let us into the old mansion by the side door,
and then lingered to ask if she might be allowed to stay and hear the
reading too. He, consenting, laughingly, lighted a cigar and soon
began. His voice in reading was sweet and melodious, and it was
touched with tremulousness, although this was an easier poem to read
aloud than many others, being strictly narrative. It is full of New
England life and is a beautiful addition to his works. He has a fancy
for making a volume, or getting some one else to do it, of his
favorite ghost stories, 'The Flying Dutchman,' 'Peter Rugg,' and a few
others."