Those girlhood days were bright and happy. I had no cares, just a rollicking time in a refined and cultured home, with lots of young men ready to amuse me, and after all these years I am proud to say girl friends of my school days, and even of the kindergarten, are still constant visitors at my home. As I write a beautiful white azalea stands before me, an offering from a woman, who sent it with a note, saying, “It was so kind of you to let me come and see you after nearly thirty years, and so charming to find you so little changed from my school-playmate, in spite of all you have done since we met. Accept this flower with gratitude and affection from a friend of your early youth.”
These are the pretty little things that make life pleasant.
PART III
WOMANHOOD
CHAPTER III
“WOOED AND MARRIED, AND A’”
ICELAND seems a strange place to go to, but it came about in this wise.
My brother was ill after completing his medical education, and wanted a holiday. Not having the slightest idea where to go, Iceland was suggested. To Cook’s I then went. The young man behind the counter shook his head. They had never been asked for a ticket to Iceland. Indeed, they did not know how to get there. They knew nothing about the place. That decided the matter, and to Iceland, in 1886, we young folk went.
Then it was that my father besought me to keep a diary. “There will be no possibility of sending letters home,” he said, “because there are only two or three posts a year, and there is no telegraphic communication. So by the time you come back, you will have forgotten many of the interesting details, all of which your mother and I would like to know. Consequently I beg you will keep a diary.”