One day a party of youths went pleasuring on Indolois[a:]'s treacherous water and our three sons were with them. With the heedlessness of youth they permitted the wind to waft their boat far out on its restless bosom. Suddenly the wind became violent, the boat was capsized, then engulfed in the tempestuous waves and ere assistance reached them nearly all of the party were drowned. Two of them were our sons Liefton and Clermond. A year later our remaining son, Faladon, lost his life in a vain endeavor to save the life of a comrade who, recklessly leaning far over the guard of a rising air transport, lost his balance and Faladon, who stood near at hand, attempted to seize him, but the sudden strain was greater than his strength, and both he and his friend were dashed to death. These repeated disasters were more than my dear wife could endure, and within a year her urned ashes were placed beside those of our three sons. In my heart was desolation and anguish unspeakable, but, for the sake of our dear daughters, I strove to cheerfully bear my awful burthen of sorrow and to, as far as possible, brighten the darkness which overshadowed their young lives. They would not marry and we three bereft ones walked as in one pathway, and thus I reached a period of age equal to seventy of your years. Then, as though death again remembered us, our youngest daughter was stricken with a fatal illness and ere we reckoned it serious the breath of her life had ceased. Our eldest and last child survived until I had aged to ninety-two years; then, with scarcely more than a sigh, her worn heart ceased to beat and I was left alone--aged, sorrow stricken and without desire for a continuance of a life which no longer held for me either charm or hope. Mechanically I fulfilled the duties of a position which had brought me the consideration of many worthier than myself, but, alas, no power could bring back my dear dead or give me peace. Laden with a heavy burthen of sorrow, the years passed tardily, and among a youthful generation whose tastes, occupations and aims had quite outgrown my own, I walked almost alone. The friends of my youth and of later years had passed into the silence, or had sought other lands as dwelling places, and I no longer cared for new friends. In my home there were those who ever were kindly attentive to my simple wants, but my utter loneliness no one could alleviate. In the midst of a multitude I was as one lost, as one whom death had forgotten and at last I longed for oblivion.