noon
They gave him many a present ; they put a silver watch in his pocket , and dressed him in a jacket with gilt buttons . He had a bouquet of flowers to take home every day to that marvellous sister of whom he spoke so often ; and there were times when the whole committee , seeing him drop off to sleep as he often did through frail and weary nature , sat silently watching lest he might be wakened before his rest was over . But no persuasion could take him off the floor of Congress . In that solemn old Hall of Representatives , under the semicircle of gray columns , he darted with agility from noon to dusk , keeping speed upon his crutches with the healthiest of the pages , and racing into the document-room ; and through the dark and narrow corridors of the old Capitol loft , where the House library was lost in twilight . Visitors looked with interest and sympathy at the narrow back and body of this invalid child , whose eyes were full of bright , beaming spirit . He sometimes nodded on the steps by the Speaker 's chair ; and these spells of dreaminess and fatigue increased as his disease advanced upon his wasting system . Once he did not awaken at all until adjournment .