62 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



But now came the first great revolution to my young life. 

 I must be sent from homfe to school ! The rebel-boy is to be 

 tamed by stern and wholesome lessons — by the necessity of 

 self-sustained struggle with the rough actualities of being. 



The soft delicious haze of home — the warm thrill of nest- 

 ling love beneath a gentle mother's wing, must even be chilled 

 away in the bare, unaided conflict, for place and recognition 

 among my fellows in the strange dreary world outside. The 

 tender soothings of that sweet seclusion, where my heart had 

 grown all fenced about by charms, must ' now give place to 

 wanton gibes ; and rufiian buffettings dispel my dream-born 

 delicate visions, in the bare melee of vulgar license ! 



It was a fearful trial, but I endured it ; for it was a wild 

 country house they sent me to, and I sought for compensation 

 amidst my old surroundings of the natural world. Those 

 loved associations of the shady wood gave me new calm with 

 the mild presence of their familiar graces, and strengthened, 

 with music of the songs they sung at home, my sinking heart 

 to bear the sharp bereavement. Here, from my first cheering 

 refuge, they became my almost sole companions in rough soli- 

 tary sports, until every secret place they made their haunts, 

 for miles and miles around, was known to me in loving visi- 

 tation, wild foray, or vengeful raid. 



For a long time I shrank from the coarse companionship 

 of the rude boys of my own age, who were my school-fellows 

 — for, fresh from my sacred home, where bird voices had" 

 mingled most with the gentle tones of playmate sisters, their 

 brutal recklessness of speech could but sound repulsive and 

 disgusting to my dainty sense. I scorned them with fastidious 

 haughtiness ; and they of course taunted me until, my pride 

 aroused, I stood at bay with sullen desperation, and in many 

 a fierce battle pounded a full respect into their thick skulls 

 for these same "womanish ways" of mine, as they had dared 

 to name them ! 



Now the ice was fairly broken — shocked by these rude col- 



