I gave it away when I went to
Greenville _to keep school_," I added; not that I supposed it would
matter anything to her, but that I thought it just as well to make sure
of her understanding my position in life.
"That is so natural to us all,--to part with these little relics when we
are still very young, and then to wish them back again before we are
much older! You would smile to see a little museum that I keep for my
brother,--not his scientific collection, which I hope some day to have
the pleasure of showing you,--but 'an _olla podrida_ in an ancestral
wardrobe,' as my little Paul calls it, of his and my two little nieces'
first baby-shoes, rattles, corals, and bells, wooden horses, primers,
picture-books, and so forth, down to the cups and balls, and copy-books,
which they have cast off within a month or two, each labelled with the
owner's name, and the date of deposit. No year goes by without leaving
behind some memento of each of them, or even without my laying aside
there some trifling articles of dress that they have worn. It is a fancy
of my brother's. He says that others may claim their after-years, but
their childhood is his own,--all of it that is not mine,--and he must
keep it for himself, and for them when they come back to visit him in
his old age.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167