Introduction 
much surprised to see him. Mrs. Hodgson was 
in her garden and he recognized her, though 
the years had altered her appearance. Let us 
give his own account of the meeting: “I asked 
her if she knew me. ‘No, I don’t,’ she said; 
‘tell me your name.’ ‘Muir,’ I replied. ‘John 
Muir? My California John Muir?’ she almost 
screamed. I said, ‘Yes, John Muir; and you 
know I promised to return and visit you in 
about twenty-five years, and though I am a 
little late — six or seven years—I’ve done 
the best I could.’ The eldest boy and girl re- 
membered the stories I told them, and when 
they read about the Muir Glacier they felt sure 
it must have been named for me. I stopped at 
Archer about four hours, and the way we talked 
? 
over old times you may imagine.” From Sa- 
vannah, on the same trip, he wrote: “Here is 
where I spent a hungry, weary, yet happy week 
camping in Bonaventure graveyard thirty-one 
years ago. Many changes, I am told, have 
been made in its graves and avenues of late, and 
how many in my life!” 
[ xxiv ] 
