My Boyhood and Youth 



trees full of sugar, growing in ground full of 

 gold; hawks, eagles, pigeons, filling the sky; 

 millions of birds' nests, and no gamekeepers to 

 stop us in all the wild, happy land. We were 

 utterly, blindly glorious. After father left the 

 room, grandfather gave David and me a gold 

 coin apiece for a keepsake, and looked very 

 serious, for he was about to be deserted in his 

 lonely old age. And when we in fullness of 

 young joy spoke of what we were going to do, 

 of the wonderful birds and their nests that 

 we should find, the sugar and gold, etc., and 

 promised to send him a big box full of that tree 

 sugar packed in gold from the glorious paradise 

 over the sea, poor lonely grandfather, about to 

 be forsaken, looked with downcast eyes on the 

 floor and said in a low, trembling, troubled 

 voice, "Ah, poor laddies, poor laddies, you'll 

 find something else ower the sea forbye gold 

 and sugar, birds' nests and freedom fra lessons 

 and schools. You'll find plenty hard, hard 

 work." And so we did. But nothing he could 

 say could cloud our joy or abate the fire of 

 [ 54] 



