Letter XLVII

The "old hat" was mentioned as something humorous: yet an old glove is
the most accepted symbol of faithful absence: and why should head rank
lower than hand? What creatures of convention we are!

There is an old notion, quite likely to be true, that a nightcap carries
in it the dreams of its first owner, or that anything laid over a
sleeper's head will bring away the dream. One of the stories which used
to put a lump in my throat as a child was of an old backwoodsman who by
that means found out that his dog stole hams from the storeroom. The dog
was given away in disgrace, and came to England to die of a broken heart
at the sight of a cargo of hams, which, at their unpacking, seemed like
a monstrous day of judgment--the bones of his misdeeds rising again
reclothed with flesh to reproach him with the thing he had never
forgotten.

I wonder how long it was before I left off definitely choosing out a
story for the pleasure of making myself cry! When one begins to avoid
that luxury of the fledgling emotions, the first leaf of youth is flown.

To-day I look almost jovially at the decay of the best year I have ever
lived through, and am your very middle-aged faithful and true.