My Boyhood and Touth 



lingering way, and how keenly precious those 

 minutes were, few nowadays can know. Father 

 failed perhaps two or three times in a whole 

 winter to notice my light for nearly ten min- 

 utes, magnificent golden blocks of time, long 

 to be remembered like holidays or geological 

 periods. One evening when I was reading 

 Church history father was particularly irritable, 

 and called out with hope-killing emphasis, 

 "John, go to bed! Must I give you a separate 

 order every night to get you to go to bed ? Now, 

 I will have no irregularity in the family; you 

 must go when the rest go, and without my 

 having to tell you." Then, as an afterthought, 

 as if judging that his words and tone of voice 

 were too severe for so pardonable an offense 

 as reading a religious book he unwarily added : 

 "If you will read, get up in the morning and 

 read. You may get up in the morning as early 

 as you like." 



That night I went to bed wishing with all 

 my heart and soul that somebody or something 

 might call me out of sleep to avail myself of 

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