EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 85 



become a publisher, and be shut up all my 

 days within the brick walls of the greatest 

 city in the universe. Now, I say it without 

 compunction, my chief joy has always been 

 when I have been able at uncertain intervals 

 to break away from this slavery, and be off to 

 the woods, and the fields, and the riverside. 



But it is not of the joys and the sorrows 

 of a publisher's life that I am asked to descant. 

 I must go back ; if I am to talk of the days of 

 my youth, it means that I must hark back for 

 seventy years and more. The task is not quite 

 so formidable as it looks, seeing that the scenes 

 and incidents of my boyish days are far more 

 vividly depicted on the tablets of my memory 

 than more important scenes of later years. I 

 suppose it is true that one's memory has not 

 retained whatever there may have been of 

 sorrow or sadness in those ancient days, and 

 certain it is that the impression now remaining 

 on my mind is that my young days were a con- 

 tinuous succession of boyish delights. It can 

 hardly be disputed that the country presents 

 infinitely more attractions for a boy, and these 

 far more conducive to a healthy and vigorous 



