IT has been a pleasure for me to recall, at the kind request of the
Messrs. Harper & Brothers, the memories of a lifetime, even though some
sad thoughts have mingled with the happy ones. So many bright shapes
have risen out of the past at my bidding that the difficulty of
selection has been great. Beloved faces seem to look out at me and say,
“Why did you leave me out?” The ghosts of noble deeds, the memories of
stirring scenes sweep softly by me, murmuring: “Are we not worthy of
mention?”
Indeed and indeed you are, bright spirits of the past and of the present
also, but in my small mosaic all the precious stones would not fit.
For the rest, if the store of my childhood’s early memories seems to be
unduly large, it must be whispered that when, some twenty-five years
ago, I began to record my reminiscences, a good fairy, my mother, helped
me.
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_MEMORIES GRAVE AND GAY_
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_MEMORIES
GRAVE AND GAY_
I