[Illustration] WHITTIER AT CLOSE RANGE BY FRANCES CAMPBELL SPARHAWK _Author of “A Chronicle of Conquest,” “Honor Dalton,” The “Dorothy Brooke” Series, &c._ BOSTON THE RIVERDALE PRESS, BROOKLINE 1925 COPYRIGHT, 1925 BY FRANCES CAMPBELL SPARHAWK _All rights reserved_ Printed in the United States of America _The Riverdale Press, Brookline, Boston, Mass._ TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER F. C. S. FOREWORD Thanks are due to Messrs. J. B. Lippincott and Company, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, and “The Congregationalist” for the permitted use of articles written for them and now revised with the new material for the book. “You do, indeed, know a great deal about uncle,” wrote Whittier’s niece, Mrs. Pickard, to the writer. In the middle 1830’s Whittier with his mother, her sister “Aunt Mercy,” and his sister Elizabeth, “our youngest and our dearest” of “Snow Bound” memories, removed from his birthplace in Haverhill to the Amesbury home which grew to be so dear to him. His townspeople held him in admiration and loving reverence. Some came to his home as honored citizens enter a city made free to them, and learned that his life was poetry no less than his writings. In 1887 he said in a letter to the writer: “I think often of the old days when thy father was alive and sister Lizzie and we were all together.” As the daughter of his physician and friend, she has given in “Whittier at Close Range” intimate glimpses of his life and character. FRANCES CAMPBELL SPARHAWK. Brookline, Massachusetts. WHITTIER AT CLOSE RANGE I In the garden room, worthy synonym of a poet’s study where blossom flowers of thought and beauty, a young neighbor of the poet awaited his coming.