All that tread The globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom.—Take the wings Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness, Or lose thyself in the continuous woods Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound Save his own dashings—yet the dead are there: And millions in those solitudes, since first The flight of years began, have laid them down In their last sleep—the dead reign there alone. So shalt thou rest; and what if thou withdraw In silence from the living, and no friend Take note of thy departure? All that breathe Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care Plod on, and each one as before will chase His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave Their mirth and their employments, and shall come And make their bed with thee. As the long train Of ages glides away, the sons of men, The youth in life’s green spring, and he who goes In the full strength of years, matron and maid, The speechless babe, and the grey-headed man— Shall one by one be gathered to thy side, By those who in their turn shall follow them. So live that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, which moves To that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. CHAPTER VI BRYANT BECOMES A LAWYER Always of a studious turn, always reading in his father’s well-stocked library, or wandering through the woods and writing poetry, Bryant naturally tended towards some learned profession. He did not care to be a doctor; he would have liked to be a literary man, if such a career had then existed or been dreamed possible. As it was not, he finally decided to become a lawyer. A classmate who remembers him at this time describes him as singularly handsome and finely formed. He was tall and slender, and had a prolific growth of dark brown hair. He was also quick and dextrous in his movements, so much so that his younger brother sometimes boasted about his “stout brother,” though he afterward learned that his strength was not so remarkable as his skill and alertness in the use of it. When his father’s poverty compelled him to abandon college, he entered the law office of a Mr. Howe, of Worthington, a quiet little village four or five miles from Cummington.