But I did not heed, so absolutely intoxicated was I with the
magnificence about me, the like of which I did not recall ever to have
seen before.

That was the beginning of those almost daily excursions that I took with
my father and sister, and that I kept up for so long a time (almost
to my boarding-school days). It is through them that I became so well
acquainted with the surrounding country and with the varieties of
flowers found there. Poor fields and meadows of my native country! So
monotonous, so flat, one so like another; fields of hay and daisies
where in childhood I would disappear from sight and hide under the green
vegetation. Fields of corn and paths bordered with hawthorn, I love you
all in spite of your monotony!

Toward the west, in the far distance, my eyes sought for a glimpse of
the sea. Sometimes when we had gone a long way there would appear upon
the horizon, among the other lines there, a straight bluish one; it
was the sea; and it lured me to it finally as a great and patient lover
lures, who sure of his power is willing to wait.

My sister and my brother, of whom I have not spoken before, were
considerably older than I; it seemed almost as if we belonged to
different generations. For that reason they petted me even more than did
my father and mother, my grandmother and aunts; and as I was the only
child among them I was cherished like a little hot-house plant, I was
too tenderly guarded and remained all too unacquainted with thorns and
brambles.