24 With Feet to the Earth 



I was ten or a dozen years old when I dis- 

 covered my legs. The parental consent 

 had been given to a salt-water swim, one 

 morning, in company with a naughty boy 

 of my own age, and after the swim the 

 other boy persuaded me into tramping with 

 him to a town where he used to live, be- 

 cause there we could have another swim, in 

 fresh water, and see a friend of his who 

 had a barrel of apples. The friend, by the 

 way, was not at home. I was barefooted, 

 we had no lunch, nor a penny to buy it 

 with ; we never once thought of the anxiety 

 our disappearance would cause at home, 

 and when we toiled up the steps of the 

 paternal mansions, dusty, empty, horribly 

 tired, at nine o'clock at night, we had cov- 

 ered between twenty and twenty-four miles 

 of road. Only then did we learn that we 

 had been nearly given up for drowned, and 

 our appearance caused such apparent re- 

 lief that we were allowed to have supper, 

 and the authorities forgot to spank us. 



About that time, also, I did much tramp- 

 ing to fife and drum, for the war was on, 

 and no regiment marched for the front 



