After a sickness of some two years, going down-town in pleasant weather, doing a little business from time to time, hoeing a little in the garden, etc., Father took to his chamber January 13th, and did not come down again . . .

  As far as I know, Father, when he died, was not only one of the oldest men in the middle of Concord, but, the one perhaps best acquainted with the inhabitants, and the local, social, and street history of the middle of the town, for the last fifty years. He belonged in a peculiar sense to the village street ; loved to sit in the shops or at the post-office and read the daily papers . . .