since called to mind as the happiest of my life. The days glided by in
the busy routine of school duties, and my evenings were spent in study
varied by social enjoyment. I was never too busy to respond to grandma's
request that I should leave my lessons or play for an hour and read to
her. I had learned to regard this aged relative with much affection;
even as a child I believe I was of a reflective cast of mind, and
Grandma Adams was the first very old person with whom I had been
intimately associated. And often as I sat by her side and watched the
firelight as it shone upon her silvery hair, and lighted up her
venerable and serene countenance, would I wonder mentally if I would
ever grow as old and feeble and my hair become as white as her's. I
remember one evening when I was indulging in these thoughts the old lady
asked me what I was thinking about that caused me to look so serious? "I
was wondering," replied I, "if I shall live to see as many years, and if
my eyes will become as dim and my air grow white as yours." "My dear
boy," she replied, "I suppose I seem to you like one who has travelled a
long journey. At your age, ten or twenty years seemed to me almost an
endless period of time, but now that I have seen more than eighty years
of life the whole journey seems very short, when taking a backward view
of the path over which I have travelled. It seems but as yesterday
since I was a little mischief-loving school girl, when my only anxiety
was how I could obtain the most play, and get along with the least
study. I used then often to think how glad I would be when my
school-days should be over; but how little did I then realize that I was
then enjoying my happiest days; for, with many others, I now believe,
our school days to be the happiest period of life. Time passed on, till
I grew up, and married. I left my native place which was Salem, in the
State of New Hampshire, and removed to Western Canada. When you look
around, my boy, over this prosperous and growing country, with its
well-cultivated farms, and numerous towns and villages, you can form no