I remember that I read some old reports of the Missionary Society with the greatest delight.
"There were chapters in them about China and Labrador.

Yet I think it is in reading, as it is in eating, when the first hunger is over you begin to be a little critical, and will by no means take to garbage if you are of a wholesome nature.

And I remember this because it touches this beautiful valley of the Hudson.

I could not go home for the Christmas of 1839, and was feeling very sad about it all, for I was only a boy; and sitting by the fire, an old farmer came in and said: 'I notice thou's fond of reading, so I brought thee summat to read.' It was Irving's 'Sketch Book.' I had never heard of the work.

I went at it, and was 'as them that dream.' No such delight had touched me since the old days of Crusoe.