This withdrawal from the duties of Congress, however, was not due to a sacrifice of his time to his professional engagements, but to the depression caused by his first great grief, which must have rendered the noise and dust of debate most distasteful to him.

Mr.and Mrs.Webster had arrived in Washington for this last session, in December, 1816, and were recalled to Boston by the illness of their little daughter Grace, who was their oldest child, singularly bright and precocious, with much of her father's look and talent, and of her mother's sensibility.

She was a favorite with her father, and tenderly beloved by him.

After her parents' return she sank rapidly, the victim of consumption.

When the last hour was at hand, the child, rousing from sleep, asked for her father.