" And I received the
impression, from her and others, and from my own imagination,
that rural life was far more delightful than the life of towns.
But there is something in the place where we were born that holds
us always by the heartstrings. A town that still has a great deal
of the country in it, one that is rich in beautiful scenery and
ancestral associations, is almost like a living being, with a
body and a soul. We speak of such a town, if our birthplace, as
of a mother, and think of ourselves as her sons and daughters.
So we felt, my sisters and I, about our dear native town of
Beverly. Its miles of sea-border, almost every sunny cove and
rocky headland of which was a part of some near relative's
homestead, were only half a day's journey distant; and the misty
ocean-spaces beyond still widened out on our imagination from the
green inland landscape around us. But the hills sometimes shut us
in, body and soul. To those who have been reared by the sea a
wide horizon is a necessity, both for the mind and for the eye.
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