everything that a man could wish for. Consequently, I was for ever
hurrying from place to place, in the belief that "IT" must be
"beginning" just where I happened not to be. Lastly, my fourth
and principal sentiment of all was abhorrence of myself, mingled
with regret--yet a regret so blended with the certain expectation
of happiness to which I have referred that it had in it nothing
of sorrow. It seemed to me that it would be so easy and natural
for me to tear myself away from my past and to remake it--to
forget all that had been, and to begin my life, with all its
relations, anew--that the past never troubled me, never clung to
me at all. I even found a certain pleasure in detesting the past,
and in seeing it in a darker light than the true one. This note
of regret and of a curious longing for perfection were the chief
mental impressions which I gathered from that new stage of my
growth--impressions which imparted new principles to my view of
myself, of men, and of God's world. O good and consoling voice,
which in later days, in sorrowful days when my soul yielded
silently to the sway of life's falseness and depravity, so often
raised a sudden, bold protest against all iniquity, as well as
mercilessly exposed the past, commanded, nay, compelled, me to
love only the pure vista of the present, and promised me all that
was fair and happy in the future! O good and consoling voice!
Surely the day will never come when you are silent?

IV

OUR FAMILY CIRCLE

PAPA was seldom at home that spring. Yet, whenever he was so, he
seemed extraordinarily cheerful as he either strummed his