CHAPTER XXI.
The eldest son--Saying of wild Finland--The critical time--Vaunting polls--One thing wanted--A father's blessing--Miracle of art--The Pope's house--Young enthusiast--Pictures of England--Persist and wrestle--The little dark man.
The eldest son! The regard and affection which my father entertained for his first-born were natural enough, and appeared to none more so than myself, who cherished the same feelings towards him.

What he was as a boy the reader already knows, for the reader has seen him as a boy; fain would I describe him at the time of which I am now speaking, when he had attained the verge of manhood, but the pen fails me, and I attempt not the task; and yet it ought to be an easy one, for how frequently does his form visit my mind's eye in slumber and in wakefulness, in the light of day and in the night watches; but last night I saw him in his beauty and his strength; he was about to speak, and my ear was on the stretch, when at once I awoke, and there was I alone, and the night storm was howling amidst the branches of the pines which surround my lonely dwelling: 'Listen to the moaning of the pine, at whose root thy hut is fastened,'-- a saying that, of wild Finland, in which there is wisdom; I listened and thought of life and death.

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