a more tangible recompense for the loss of my time and filial service, and therefore determined to save the expense of board by returning every night. This implied a daily walk of fully four miles, the accommodations of omnibus and livery stable being then wholly unknown in that region. My friend continued a boarder as heretofore, and my enterprise was censured as Quixotic. But the motive sustained me, and I doubt whether at any period of my life I was ever more perfectly happy.
My morning walk of two miles imparted such vigor and cheerfulness that the cares of teaching were unfelt. My noon's repast consisted of two or three hard biscuits, made in the most delicate manner by my mother, and placed by her hand in my little bag. They were taken, as I sat with a book, when the weather was fine, under some umbrageous trees in the grounds at the rear of our school-house. I needed nothing more, but was satisfied and light-hearted. At night, our work done, the image of my watching, welcoming parents nerved my feet, and bore me over the intervening space as on the wings of a bird. Sometimes there were severe storms. Then the parents of such pupils as lived in my section of the town were kind enough to take me in the family carriage with their daughters. These occasions were, however, but few; and the amount of exercise, which had been deprecated by friends and even blamed by physicians, thus combining
