manly, robust, and
bracing atmosphere in his company, and when I reflect upon what were
my proclivities to folly during this impressionable period, I thank my
stars for such a father.

There was abundant quiet and seclusion in Rock Park, and had my father
been able to do any writing, he could hardly have found a retreat more
suitable. The tradesmen called early at the houses in the Park, their
wagon-wheels making no sound upon the unpaved street, and the two
policemen, who lived in the stone lodges, kept the place free from
beggars and peddlers. These policemen, pacing slowly along in their
uniforms, rigid and dignified, had quite an imposing aspect, and it was
some time before we children discovered that they were only men, after
all. Each had a wife and children, who filled to overflowing the tiny
habitations; when their blue coats and steel-framed hats were off, they
were quite humble persons; one of them eked out his official salary by
mending shoes. After following with awe the progress along the sidewalk
of the officer of public order, stalking with solemn and measured gait,
and touching his hat, with a hand encased in a snow-white cotton glove,
to such of the denizens of the Park as he might encounter, it was
quite like a fairy-tale transformation to see him squatting in soiled
shirt-sleeves on his cobbler's bench, drawing waxed thread through holes
in a boot-sole. I once saw one of them, of a Sunday afternoon, standing
at ease in the doorway of his lodge, clad in an old sack-coat which I
recognized as having been my father's. I am constitutionally reverent
of law and order; but the revelation of the domestic lives of these
policemen gave me an insight, which I have never since lost, into the
profound truth that the man and the officer are twain.

There were perhaps twenty families living in the Park, of whom we became
acquainted with two only; the people who lived next door to us (whose
name I have forgotten), and Mr. and Mrs. Squarey, who dwelt higher up
the street. The people next door had two boys of about my own age, with
whom I played cricket, and it was from the back windows of their house
that I saw for the first time an exhibition of fireworks in their
garden; I remember that when, just before the show began, they put out
the lamp in the room, I asked to have it relighted, in order that
I might see the as yet unexperienced wonder. There are folks who go
hunting for the sun with a lantern.

Mr. Square