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KING" CAPRON One reason for Capron's selling out his interest in the Furnace , was that he suffered severely from rheumatism, aggravated, he be- lieved, by the damp air that lav over the swamps around Norman- dale. Probably he suffered from the malaria that was carried by swamp mosquitoes. I By 186o, his joints were swollen, and his movements painfully slow. But his affliction did not tie him to his house. For a number of years he stubbornly continued to move about, at first on horse- back, and then in a sort of buckboard behind a fast horse. And although he was sometimes curt and crusty, he was usually able to see the humorous side of life, and to make the comical remarks for which he was famous. People said that his wit and humor resembled those of Abraham Lincoln. And so the years rolled by, and the pioneers disappeared one by one. Mary De Long Capron was among the first to go. She died on January 27, 1853, in her fifty-fourth year. Concerning her death, Capron wrote the following letter to a friend: We are all in tears. Mrs. Capron is no more. It is melancholy for me to record her death. She has gone down to the grave in peace. ¶ Sensible to the last, she died without a struggle or a groan, like going to sleep. She began to fail Friday - was very weak. Her breathing grew short, and continued so until Saturday towards evening, but all the time she thought she should rally again and be better. About six o'clock, Saturday, she grew much worse, and greatly distressed for breath. We were now convinced that it would soon be all over. She could speak only with the greatest effort. She motioned to us to leave her quietly. Towards morning she requested me to take good care of her children, and particularly to take care of her poor old father and mother. Then she sank down gently to sleep, to wake no more. And then, in 1869, the "King" himself began to sense that his life was drawing to its close. To George Swinington, a relative in Ver- mont, he wrote: Brother Horace had a strange numbness, a slight sign of palsy, last week; but warming up, friction, and some whiskey carried him through it. He is now about again. I keep in comfortable health. But I know that I am wearing out rapidly. I go about but little, my steps are short, my memory and hearing fail me. It is a little singular that with all my infirmities my hand does not tremble and my sight is quite good. I can read common print or writing with- out glasses, tolerably well - better with them. I should like to see Leicester once more, the Land of my Youth, where I used to sport, play, shoot crows, gather butternuts, and make and drink cider. The happiest days of my life! If I were there, I would spend a week among the Mountains where the Cattle fall out of the Pasture. In fact, I believe the reason Vermonters like the Little Merino Sheep so well is that if one falls out of the Pasture on the Mountains, it does not hurt them; they will up like a red squirrel and back into the field again. ,?~~~~~~~~ ~35 A ~~~~~~~~~~l l' 1 i [