And so the sum kept gathering still Till after the battle of Bunker's Hill.

When paper money became so cheap,
Folks would n't count it, but said 'a heap,'
A certain RICHARDS, the books de-
clare

--

(A. M. in '90? I've looked with care
Through the Triennial, — name not there),-
This person, Richards, was offered then
Eightscore pounds, but would have ten; 100
Nine, I think, was the sum he took,
Not quite certain, — but see the book.
By and by the wars were still,
But nothing had altered the Parson's will.
The old arm-chair was solid yet,
But saddled with such a monstrous debt!
Things grew quite too bad to bear,
Paying such sums to get rid of the chair!
But dead men's fingers hold awful tight,
And there was the will in black and white,
Plain enough for a child to spell.

III

What should be done no man could tell, For the chair was a kind of nightmare

About those conditions?' Well, now you

go

140

And do as I tell you, and then you'll know.
Once a year, on Commencement day,
If you'll only take the pains to stay,
You'll see the President in the CHAIR,
Likewise the Governor sitting there.
The President rises; both old and young
May hear his speech in a foreign tongue,
The meaning whereof, as lawyers swear,
Is this: Can I keep this old arm-chair ?
And then his Excellency bows,

As much as to say that he allows.
The Vice-Gub. next is called by name;
He bows like t'other, which means the

1 For nearly forty years, from 1851 to 1889, Holmes never failed to bring a poem to the annual reunion of his college class. These poems, merely occasional,' and local as they were in origin, form a section in his collected works which is perhaps the most important, and, except for his best humorous narratives and his two finest lyrics, the most likely to survive; for, with all Holmes's characteristic wit and humor, they cele brate feelings that are broadly and typically American

class loyalty and college loyalty, and growing out of these, the loyalty of man's enduring friendship, and loyalty to country.

The famous class of '29' counted among its members a chief-justice of Massachusetts, George T. Bigelow (the Judge' of this poem); a justice of the United

That boy with the grave mathematical look Made believe he had written a wonderful book,

And the ROYAL SOCIETY thought it was true!

So they chose him right in; a good joke it was, too!

States Supreme Court, B. R. Curtis (the boy with the three-decker brain'); the great preacher, James Freeman Clarke; Professor Benjamin Peirce (that boy with the grave mathematical look '); and the author of America,' S. F. Smith. For a full list of members of the class, see the Cambridge Edition of Holmes's Poetical Works, p. 340.

1 Hon. Francis B. Crowninshield, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

2 G. W. Richardson, of Worcester, Massachusetts. Hon. George L. Davis.

It must have been in 'forty- I would say 'thirty-nine

We talked this matter over, I and a friend of mine.

He said, 'Well now, old fellow, I'm thinking that you and I,

If we act like other people, shall be older by and by;

What though the bright blue ocean is smooth as a pond can be,

And when on the western summits the fading light appears,

'I know it,' I said, 'old fellow; you speak the solemn truth;

A man can't live to a hundred and likewise keep his youth;

But what if the ten years coming shall silver-streak my hair,

You know I shall then be forty; of course I shall not care.

'At forty a man grows heavy and tired of fun and noise;

Leaves dress to the five-and-twenties and love to the silly boys;

No foppish tricks at forty, no pinching of waists and toes,

But high-low shoes and flannels and good thick worsted hose.'

fifty years.

20

1859.

(1877.)

Pours the swift rain-drops, blending, as

they fall,

In rushing river-tides !

Yon stream, whose sources run

Turned by a pebble's edge,

1 This and the three following poems are from the

Professor at the Breakfast Table.

included in that volume.

The Boys' also is