VII 



IN THE MOUNT HOPE LANDS 



TO return to the place where one has 

 spent almost every summer of one's 

 life, though the time elapsed since the last 

 departure has been only a few months, 

 brings with each visit, new pleasures and 

 surprises. Every landmark must be 

 hunted up and every change noted. It 

 is with the same pleasure now that I re- 

 visit certain spots in Bristol, Rhode Is- 

 land, as when on returning to our summer 

 cottage years ago I would ransack every 

 drawer and closet to find some forgotten 

 boyish toy of the previous season. Some- 

 times I wish I could live those summers 

 over again, because I could spend them to 

 better advantage, and yet those weeks from 

 June to October when I lived in an atmos- 

 phere of do-nothingness I now deeply 

 cherish. Bristol does not offer to outsid- 

 ers the attractions it does to me, — they 

 see only its surface, so to speak, — but 



