y light--that is to say,
pursued through every possible key only to return and end at the
original starting-point.

CHAPTER VIII.

Story-telling--Mr. Greeley's Father--His Personal Appearance--His
Education--A Fine Voice--Mr. Greeley's Mother--A Handsome Woman--How
she is remembered in Vermont--Field Labor--Bankruptcy--A Journey to
Vermont--School Days--The Boy Horace--How he entertained his
Playmates--His First Ball--Separation from his Family.

_June 25_.

"What a delightful evening for story-telling!" said Gabrielle, as she
listened to the heavy rain-drops falling upon the leaves of the old
apple-tree; "will you not give us one, Aunt Esther?"

"Yes," said Ida and Marguerite, drawing their chairs closer to mamma's
sofa. "Do tell us about yourself when you were a young girl, and about
grandpapa and grandmamma!"

"Ah," said mamma, with a sigh, "you children have never known my dear
parents!"

Marguerite was the only one of the young quartette who remembered
having seen grandpapa, and her recollections of him were confused with
memories of people in Europe, where our childhood was spent.

"How did he look when you were a little girl, mamma?" I inquired. "I
think he is quite imposing in your little picture taken the year before
he died, and he must have been very handsome when he was young."

"He was not only handsome: he was an unusual man," said mamma,
decidedly. "No biographer, in speaking of our family, has ever
estimated him correctly, and even dear brother himself does not give
sufficient importance to father's fine character and mental qualities;
but you know that he left home when a boy of fifteen, and after that
time he only saw father at long intervals.

"You remember, Cecilia, that all the foreign sketches you have ever
read of brother, announce that his parents were 'common peasants,'
while many American writers, although they do not use the word
'peasant,' convey a similar impression. Father was by no means a
common man, for to be 'common' one must be vulgar or ignorant, and
father was neither. He was not uneducated, although his schooling was
very slight; but he was a good reader, was very skilful in arithmetic,
and wrote an excellent hand--an accomplishment for which our family are
not celebrated--beside possessing a hoard of self-acquired information
upon different subjects. During the long winter evenings in our lonely
Pennsylvania home, he taught us younger children arithmetic,