"He was father of many children, mostly girls: and finally died in a
very dignified and respectable manner, full of years and honors,--as
they say in storybooks.
"His handsome property, being divided so often, made but rather small
portions for the children, and several of the daughters died unmarried.
"Then the family began to decay, and each succeeding head of the family
found it a harder struggle to keep up the old hospitalities and the
traditional style of living. They died out, too. The lateral branches
of the family-tree never flourished, and one after another came to an
end, till about forty years ago the remnant of the family-blood and the
family-name was centred in two cousins, a young man and a girl. They
met at the funeral of the girl's mother, and found in a short
conversation that they were the sole representatives of the old name,
alive.
"They married, gloomily helping on the fate which awaited them, by
uniting their two threads of life in one, that thus she might sever it
more easily. I was their only child, and they named me Ichabod,--'the
glory has departed.'
"It is a sad proof of how deeply the bitterness of life had entered
their souls, that, even in the supreme moment when they clasped their
first-born in their arms, the name which rose from heart to lip, and
which they bestowed upon him, was in itself a cry of anguish and
despair.
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