Yet, we enjoyed intervals of unalloyed contentment. When the twilight
toned down the hard outlines of the oaks, and made shadowy clumps and
formless masses of other bushes, it was quite romantic to sit by the
window and inhale the faint, sad odor of the fennel in the walks below.
Perhaps this economical pleasure was much enhanced by a picture in my
memory, whose faded colors the odor of this humble plant never failed to
restore. So I often sat there of evenings and closed my eyes until the
forms and benches of a country schoolroom came back to me, redolent with
the incense of fennel covertly stowed away in my desk, and gazed again
in silent rapture on the round, red cheeks and long black braids of that
peerless creature whose glance had often caused my cheeks to glow over
the preternatural collar, which at that period of my boyhood it was
my pride and privilege to wear. As I fear I may be often thought
hypercritical and censorious in these articles, I am willing to record
this as one of the advantages of our new house, not mentioned in the
advertisement, nor chargeable in the rent. May the present tenant, who
is a stock-broker, and who impresses me with the idea of having always
been called "Mr." from his cradle up, enjoy this advantage, and try
sometimes to remember he was a boy!


III.


Soon after I moved into Happy Valley I was struck with the remarkable
infelicity of its title. Generous as Californians are in the use of
adjectives, this passed into the domain of irony. But I was inclined to
think it sincere,--the production of a weak but gushing mind, just
as the feminine nomenclature of streets in the vicinity was evidently