The Queen of Sheba and my Cousin the Colonel by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Mrs. Wesley frequently embarrasses me by remarking in the presence of / other persons -- our intimate friends, of course -- "Wesley, you are not / brilliant, but you are good."

From Mrs. Wesley's outlook, which is that of a very high ideal, there / is nothing uncomplimentary in the remark, nothing so intended, but I / must confess that I have sometimes felt as if I were paying a rather / large price for character. Yet when I reflect on my cousin the colonel, / and my own action in the matter, I am ready with gratitude to accept / Mrs. Wesley's estimate of me, for if I am not good, I am not anything. / Perhaps it is an instance of my lack of brilliancy that I am willing to / relate certain facts which strongly tend to substantiate this. My / purpose, however, is not to prove either my goodness or my dulness, but / to leave some record, even if slight and imperfect, of my only / relative. When a family is reduced like ours to a single relative, it / is well to make the most of him. One should celebrate him annually, as / it were.