OUR close relationship to Old England was sometimes a little misleading
to us juveniles. The conditions of our life were entirely different,
but we read her descriptive stories and sang her songs as if they were
true for us, too. One of the first things I learned to repeat--I think
it was in the spelling-book--began with the verse:--
"I thank the goodness and the grace
That on my birth has smiled,
And made me, in these latter days,
A happy English child."