CONFESSIONS OF BOYHOOD
By JOHN ALBEE
BOSTON
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS
1910
Copyright 1920 by John Albee
All Rights Reserved
The Gorham Press, Boston, U.S.A.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE WALLS OF THE WORLD
SHADOWS AND ECHOES
SHADOWS
ECHO
HOLIDAYS
THE AMPUTATION
COUNTRY FUNERALS
MY MOTHER'S RED CLOAK
MY UNCLE LYMAN
THE ANCIENT NEW ENGLAND FARMER
THE DORR WAR AND MILLERISM
WOODS AND PASTURES
APPRENTICESHIPS
HOME AND HOMESICKNESS
THE SAW-MILL
BOOTMAKING
LOVE AND LUXURY
SHOP BOY
PISTOL MAKER
THE AWAKENING
STUDENT LIFE
SCHOOLMASTER
FARM HAND
CONCLUSION
AVE ATGUE VALE
INTRODUCTION
For so many years Bellingham has had its abode in my fancy that I findit hard to associate the town with a definite geographical location. Iconnect it rather with the places of dreams and wonderland; the lostcities of the Oxus and Hydaspes, the Hesperian Gardens and thosevisionary realms visited and named by poets. My birthplace growsunfamiliar when I take down an atlas and run my finger over theparti-colored divisions of the Norfolk County of Massachusetts and tracethe perimeter which confines Bellingham to its oblong precinct,surrounded by those mythical lands of Mendon, Milford and Medway. Theywear an authoritative appearance on the map; but for me they occupied nosuch positions in my childhood and stand as stubborn realities hinderingmy feet when I wish to return to the Red House of my fathers. Oncethere, memory and fact are no longer conflicting. I find, as of old, thegently undulating hills, the gently loitering stream.
The legends concerning the founding of Bellingham are missing. I amsorry; for I could believe the most extravagant, feeling with Plutarch,that fortune, in the history of any town, often shows herself a poet.The Delphian Pythoness advised Theseus to found a city wherever in astrange land he was most sorrowful and afflicted. There at length hewould find repose and happiness. Thus it happened when the wanderersfrom Braintree settled on the shores of the upper Charles. They broughttheir unhappy fortunes so far, and there, in due time, found comfort andcontentment.
The traveller, journeying through the highways of Bellingham, would seenot