und to my
youthful ears. This I knew, that most of the leading men of the place
went to church when they went anywhere, and not to our meeting-house,
where, however, we had good congregations. Many of our people were
farmers who came from a distance for the afternoon service, and at whose
homes when the time came I had many a happy day going out ferreting in
the winter and in the autumn riding on the fore-horse. As the harvest
was being gathered in, how proud was I to ride that fore-horse, though I
lost a good deal of leather in consequence, and how welcome the night's
rest after tumbling about in the waggon in the harvest field. Happily
did the morning of my life pass away amidst rural scenes and sights. It
is a great privilege to be born in the country. Childhood in the city
loses much of its zest. Yet I had my dark moments. I had often to walk
through a small wood, where, according to the village boys, flying
serpents were to be seen, and in the dark nights I often listened with
fear and trembling to the talk of the villagers of wretched miscreants
who were to be met with at such times with pitch-plaster, by means of
which they took away many a boy's life for the sake of selling his dead
body to the doctor for the purposes of dissection. But the winter night
had its consolations nevertheless. We had the stories of English history
by Maria Hack and other light literature to read. We had dissecting maps
to put together, and thus acquire a knowledge of geography. And there
was a wonderful game invented by a French _abbe_, which was played in
connection with a teetotum and a map of England and Wales, the benefits
of which even at this distance of time I gratefully record. It is true
cards were looked upon as sinful, but we had chess and draughts. Later
on we had _The Penny Magazine_, and _Chambers's Journal_, and _The
Edinburgh Review_, which had to me all the fascination of a novel. We
had also _The Evangelical Magazine_ and _The Youth's Companion_, a
magazine which, I believe, has long ceased to exist, and the volumes with
illustrations of the Society for Diffusion of Useful and Entertaining
Knowledge, and we had the book club meetings, when it was the fashion for
the members to take tea at each other's homes, and propose books, and
once a year meet to sell the old ones by auction. My father shone on
such occasions. He was a good talker, as times went--conversation not
being much of a gift among the memb