From that time the simple village life was at an end. Its provincial
character was fading out; shipping was at a disadvantage, and there
were no more bronzed sea-captains coming to dine and talk about their
voyages, no more bags of filberts or oranges for the children, or
great red jars of olives; but in these childish years I had come in
contact with many delightful men and women of real individuality and
breadth of character, who had fought the battle of life to good
advantage, and sometimes against great odds.
In these days I was given to long, childish illnesses, and it must be
honestly confessed, to instant drooping if ever I were shut up in
school. I had apparently not the slightest desire for learning, but my
father was always ready to let me be his companion in long drives
about the country.
In my grandfather's business household, my father, unconscious of
tonnage and timber measurement, of the markets of the Windward
Islands or the Mediterranean ports, had taken to his book, as old
people said, and gone to college and begun that devotion to the study
of medicine which only ended with his life.
I have tried already to give some idea of my father's character in my
story of "The Country Doctor," but all that is inadequate to the gifts
and character of the man himself. He gave me my first and best
knowledge of books by his own delight and dependence upon them, and
ruled my early attempts at writing by the severity and simplicity of
his own good taste.
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