"Newhaven, January 2, 1731. "Our sweeper having lately buried his spouse, and accidentally hearing of the death and will of his deceased Cambridge brother, has conceived a violent passion for the relict. As love softens the mind and disposes to poetry, he has eas'd himself in the following strains, which he transmits to the charming widow, as the first essay of his love and courtship. "M To you I fly, ISTRESS Abbey You only can relieve me, If you will but believe me. Then, gentle dame, And grant me my petition, In pitiful condition. Before the news Of your dear spouse Had reached us at Newhaven, My dear wife dy'd, In anno eighty-seven. Thus being free, To join our hands, for I do A widower Is fittest for a widow. You may be sure I make this flowing verse on; In these smooth lays I only praise The glories of your person. For the whole that Which Matthew long had wanted. No teeth 'tis true The young think teeth inviting; I love those mouths Where there's no fear of biting. A leaky eye, These woful times is fitting. A wrinkled face Adds solemn grace To folks devout at meeting, [A furrowed brow, Thus to go on I would put down Your charms from head to foot, In verse before ye, But I've no mind to do't. Then haste away, Make beds and sweep And talk and smoke together. But if, my dear, I must move there, Tow'rds Cambridge straight I'll set me On which you lay, If age and you will let me." MRS. ABDY'S SUBSEQUENT LIFE. It is not known how much coquetting and cooing and wooing and sparking may have been carried on between the widower and the widow; but it is certain that they were never married. The disconsolate widow continued to live “a single life." We do not find that she ever deviated in the least from the strictest propriety in any respect-unless some may think she erred in not preventing the publicity given to the poetical epistle of the affectionate widower. There is no evidence that she ever laid aside her weeds of mourning. The sun rose and set each day as usual. Month followed month and year followed year and shecontinued to sweep and to make beds. After Mr. Abdy's decease she never changed her name. To the last it was Ruth Abdy. Finally, at a very advanced age, she passed away. The college rooms no longer resounded with the clatter of her feet and the dump of her pail. The spiders had nothing to fear from her broom. So far as she was concerned, the bugs slept quietly in their beds, except when they issued forth to take a walk or in quest of food. With her the family, as is the case with almost all illustrious families after a few generations, died out. Even the name of Abdy became extinct in Cambridge. MRS. ABDY'S DEATH. The good old lady's departure was announced in the Boston Evening Post, Monday, December 13, 1762, in these words : Cambridge, Dec. 10. Yesterday died here in a very advanced age Mrs. Abdy, Sweeper for very many years at Harvard College, and well known to all that have (1) We think this stanza may be an interpolation. It is found in the London Magazine; but not in the Gentleman's Magazine or on the Broadside. had an education here within the present Century. She was Relict of Matthew Abdy, Sweeper, well known to the learned world by his last Will and Testament."(1) The Cambridge City Records say that Ruth Abdy died at Cambridge, 10 December 1762, at the age of 93. The tradition is that the Abdys lived on the spot where Mr. Lyman Thurston now resides, south of the Rev. Dr. Albro's meetinghouse and on the southwest corner of Mount Auburn and Holyoke Streets, and that the well was near the small gate in front of Mr. Thurston's house. No monument of any kind marks Mrs. Abdy's resting place or that of her husband. Though both of them lived in humble life they were as worthy and their deeds as acceptable to God as many over whom have been reared piles of marble. Truly does the fine old hymn of Herbert say: "Teach me, my God and King, In all things Thee to see, And, what I do in any thing, * To do it as for Thee." * * * "A servant with this clause, Makes drudgery divine; Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, (1) Communicated by Joseph Palmer, M. D., of Boston. |