I adored them as angels; I dreaded them as if they were mad dogs, and were going to bite me.
My parents were respected residents of a small village in the western part of the State of New York.

I had been away at a boys' academy for three years, and returned about the first of June to my parents and to Babbletown to find that I was considered a young man, and expected to take my part in the business and pleasures of life as such.

My father dismissed his clerk and put me in his place behind the counter of our store.
Within three days every girl in that village had been to that store after something or another--pins, needles, a yard of tape, to look at gloves, to _try on shoes_, or examine gingham and calico, until I was happy, because out of sight, behind a pile high enough to hide my flushed countenance.

I shall never forget that week.

I ran the gauntlet from morning till night.