"I'll try," I answered; "but I ain't got a very good memory, have I?"

"Not very," smiled my mother; "but if you think about it a good deal
it will not leave you. When you are a good boy, and later on, when
you are a good man, then I am the luckiest little mother in all the
world. And every time you fail, that means bad luck for me. You will
remember that after I'm gone, when you are a big man, won't you,
Paul?"

So, both of us quite serious, I promised; and though I smile now when
I remember, seeing before me those two earnest, childish faces, yet I
think, however little success it may be I have to boast of, it would
perhaps have been still less had I entirely forgotten.

From that day my mother waxes in my memory; Mrs. Fursey, of the many
promontories, waning. There were sunny mornings in the neglected
garden, where the leaves played round us while we worked and read;
twilight evenings in the window seat where, half hidden by the dark
red curtains, we would talk in whispers, why I know not, of good men
and noble women, ogres, fairies, saints and demons; they were pleasant
days.

Possibly our curriculum lacked method; maybe it was too varied and
extensive for my age, in consequence of which chronology became
confused within my brain, and fact and fiction more confounded than
has usually been considered permissible, even in history. I saw
Aphrodite, ready armed and risen from the sea, move with stately grace
to meet King Canute, who, throned upon the sand, bade her come no
further lest she should wet his feet. In forest glade I saw King