III THE MICKLE STREET HOUSE 18 IV THE NEW RÉGIME 27 V CURIOUS NEIGHBORS 37 VI MR. WHITMAN DRIVES 47 VII BROOMS, BILLS AND MENTAL CHLOROFORM 55 VIII VISITING AND VISITORS 67 IX A BUST AND A PAINTING 73 X REST--AND ROUTINE 87 XI A SHOCK, AND SOME CHANGES 100 XII ANCHORED 113 XIII WARREN FRITZINGER 119 XIV FRIENDS, MONEY, AND A MAUSOLEUM 133 XV THE LAST BIRTHDAY PARTY 142 XVI THE NEW NURSE 150 XVII "SHIFT, WARRY" 167 XVIII WINDING UP 176 XIX THE TRIAL 182 XX CONCLUSION 187 WALT WHITMAN'S MONUMENTS, BY GUIDO BRUNO 195 WALT WHITMAN SPEAKS 207 INDEX 225 WALT WHITMAN IN MICKLE STREET _I write this book in loving memory of three of the most kind-hearted, unselfish and capable people I ever knew I Dedicate It to ALEX. McALISTER, M.D._ HALCYON DAYS Not from successful love alone, Nor wealth, nor honored middle-age, Nor victories of politics or war; But as life wanes, and all the turbulent passions calm, As gorgeous, vapory, silent hues cover the evening sky, As softness, fulness, rest, suffuse the frame like fresher, balmier air, As the days take on a mellower light, And the apple at last hangs really finish'd and indolent-ripe on the tree, Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all, The brooding and blissful halcyon days! WALT WHITMAN WALT WHITMAN IN MICKLE STREET I MARY OAKES DAVIS "_She hath wrought a good work on me.... This also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her._"--ST. MARK XIV: 6, 9. "_Whitman with the pen was one man--Whitman in private life was another man._"--THOMAS DONALDSON. Someone has said: "A veil of silence, even mystery, seems to have shut out from view the later home life of Walt Whitman." There is no reason for this, but if it be really so, the veil cannot be lifted without revealing in a true light the good woman--Mary Oakes Davis--so closely connected with the poet's later years, and of whom he often spoke as "my housekeeper, nurse and friend."