of water was in his stomach or lungs, he did not drown. After satisfying myself fully on these points, I told Mrs. Brown that the governor must have been dead by the time he struck the water, to which she said yes. . . . She had decided on nothing further than that she would go to Washington. We urged her to make Burleigh her home in the mean time, and at her pleasure, Sophy adding that either she or Sue would go to Chicama and stay with her, if she preferred it to coming here. She made no reply by words."
The summer of 1880 was a very happy one, the house being full of his brother's children and grand-children and his own. We had many merry dances, in which our dear father joined us when we represented to him that he was needed as a partner. He never danced after this suntmer. In the latter part of August he met with an accident that confined him to his bed for five months, and produced a stiffness of the legs that lasted as long as he lived. Happening to be engaged in conversation as he was about to take his seat, he moved backward to his chair and sat by the side of it, instead of in the seat. His fall was heavy, and he struck his head with force against the sharp edge of a door as he went down. He fainted four times in quick succession from pain, and then fell into a five hours' sleep, from which it was impossible to rouse him. We tried everything before the doctor got there, among other remedies putting mustard-plasters on the legs. In our hurry and grief the plasters were forgotten till they had burned deeply. At the end of the sleep he awoke perfectly in his senses, and would have been as well as ever in two days but for the mustard-burns. His patience and brightness during this confinement were the surprise of all who visited him, for he had led an active life, and had not had the discipline of bodily suffering. Not a complaint escaped his lips, although at times the pain was almost unbearable, and it was more than once thought that amputation only could give him a chance for his life. He was quite helpless, of course, and could not
