CHAPTER II. 



SIXTEEN TO TWENTY. 



AT the age of sixteen, Richard Jefferies had an 

 adventure almost the only adventure of his 

 quiet life. It was an adventure which could 

 only happen to a youth of strong imagination, 

 capable of seeing no difficulties or dangers, and 

 refusing to accept the word " impossible." 



At this time he was a long and loose-limbed 

 lad, regarded by his own family as at least an 

 uncommon youth and a subject of anxiety as 

 to his future, a boy who talked eagerly of 

 things far beyond the limits of the farm, who 

 was self-willed and masterful, whose ideas 

 astonished and even irritated those whose 

 thoughts were accustomed to move in a narrow, 

 unchanging groove. He was also a boy, as 



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