54 AN OLD ROAD. 



begrudge us the apples, of course, for he 

 was rich and presumably generous ; but it 

 was quite as well for him to be somewhere 

 else while we were gathering up these fa- 

 vors which the winds of heaven had shaken 

 down for our benefit. There is something 

 of the special pleader in most of us, it is to 

 be feared, whether young or old. If we 

 are put to it, we can draw a very fine dis- 

 tinction (in our own favor), no matter how 

 obtuse we may seem on ordinary occasions. 



Remembering how voracious and undis- 

 criminating my juvenile appetite was, I 

 cannot help wondering that I am still alive, 

 a feeling which I doubt not is shared by 

 many a man who, like myself, had a coun- 

 try bringing-up. We must have been born 

 with something more than a spark of life, 

 else it would certainly have been smothered 

 long ago by the fuel so recklessly heaped 

 upon it. But we lived out-of-doors, took 

 abundant exercise, were not studious over- 

 much (as all boys and girls are charged 

 with being nowadays), and had little to 

 worry about, which may go far to explain 

 the mystery. 



It provokes a smile to reckon up the 



