A CHILD OF NATURE 
his body too carefully ; he accepted 
the hard fare and forgot it. as the 
poor student forgets his poverty 
when he finds himself at last within 
reach of the books of which he has 
dreamed. John Foster could not 
remember a time when the cluster- 
ing hills and the remote and solitary 
mountains had not been friendly to 
him ; they had gathered round his 
childhood as the stars had brooded 
over it, and both had bidden him 
welcome and made him feel at 
home with them. The little farm- 
house stood on the ridge of the 
uplands, and on either hand the 
surrounding country lay spread out 
like a map to the far horizons. 
To the north and west there were 
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