70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



idly against the stays in a calm; or we followed 

 the steamer with its long line of canal boats laden 

 with the wealth of field and wood for the distant 

 market. Sometimes a passenger boat came in close 

 to shore to avoid a strong, westerly wind. With 

 what anxiety we watched for the cloud of black 

 smoke and the sound of her laborious breathing, 

 and the first wave that struck the shore made by 

 her lightning speed as we thought it while 

 the foam rose from her bows. As I lay there on 

 the bank I used to wonder what was beyond my 

 little horizon. I longed for a wider life and for a 

 more intimate knowledge of the great world, which 

 seemed to me to have no limits; and it was this 

 unsatisfied desire of my youth that led me to 

 travel far and wide when I became older. 



Since all the children on a farm helped with the 

 work more or less from their childhood, it may be 

 guessed that we did not have so much time for 

 games as children do nowadays. The most gen- 

 eral, then as now, was baseball, which differed 

 from the modern game in several features. The 

 ball was then reasonably soft. It might be thrown 

 at a runner if he was off his base, by anyone of the 

 opposing side, and if he were hit, he was out. 

 Strikes and hits and fouls were the same as now; 



