It Is With The Approach

It Is Said That Many Children Who Live In The Central Provinces, Away From The Ocean, Have A Great Longing To See It. I Who Had Never Been Away From The Monotonous Country Surrounding Us Looked Forward Eagerly To Seeing The Mountains.

I Do Not Exactly Remember At What Period I Started My Museum Which Absorbed So Much Of My Time.

I Recall Feeling An Almost Delicious Terror When One Day I Found Myself Alone In The Midst Of Tall June Grasses That Grew High As My Head. But Here The Secret Working Of Self Consciousness Is Almost Too Entangled With The Things Of The Past For Me To Explain It.

I Am Sure That The Sad Days And Happenings Were Rare, And That I Lived The Joyous And Careless Life Of Other Children; But Just Because The Happy Days Were So Habitual To Me They Made No Impression Upon My Mind, And I Can No Longer Recall Them.

I Still Have In My Memory, Almost Agonizing Impressions Of A Serious Illness Which I Had When I Was About Eight Years Old. Those About Me Called It Scarlet Fever, And Its Very Name Seemed To Have A Diabolical Quality.