My sorrow was genuine and bitter.

It is a great mistake on the part of elderly people, male and female, to tell a child that he is seeing his happiest days.

Don't you believe a word of it, my little friend.

The burdens of childhood are as hard to bear as the crosses that weigh us down later in life, while the happinesses of childhood are tame compared with those of our maturer years.

And even if this were not so, it is rank cruelty to throw shadows over the young heart by croaking, "Be merry, for to-morrow you die!" As the last days of Nelly's visit drew near, I fell into a very unhealthy state of mind.