This was a happy place
for us, and especially in the spring time, when the happy looking
cows grazed along the pathway which winds around the elm to the stream
where Kate and I used to sail my little boat. All summer long this
place was vocal with the songs of birds, which built their nests in
safety among the tall trees of the grove in the rear of the farm. We
had also the music of the running brook, and the pleasant hum of my
father's cotton mill, which brought us in our daily bread. Haying time
was always a happy season for us boys. Father's two horses, "_Dick_"
and "_Bonny_" would take off the farm as large a load of hay as any in
the village.
Years past on, and we were a happy band of brothers and sisters. After
Kate, came the twins, Margaret and Herbert, and last of all came the
youngest darling, blue eyed Dora. We had a happy childhood. Our
station in the world was high enough to enable us to have all the
harmless pleasures and studies that were useful and actually necessary
to boys and girls of our station. Father always thought that it was
better in early youth not to force the boys to too hard study, and
mother loved best to see Kate and Margaret using the fingers in
fabricating garments, than in playing the harp.
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