I am afraid that I received it all in
a dumb, undemonstrative way, for I could not make it seem real
that I was the person meant, or that I was going away at all.
But I treasured those tributes of sympathy afterwards, under the
strange, spacious skies where I sometimes felt so alone.
The editors of the "Offering" left with me a testimonial in
money, accompanied by an acknowledgment of my contributions
during several years; but I had never dreamed of pay, and did not
know how to look upon it so. I took it gratefully, however, as a
token of their appreciation, and twenty dollars was no small help
toward my outfit. Friends brought me books and other keepsakes.
Our minister, gave me D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation" as
a parting gift. It was quite a circumstance to be "going out
West."
The exhilaration of starting off on one's first long journey,
young, ignorant, buoyant, expectant, is unlike anything else,
unless it be youth itself, the real beginning of the real
journey-- life.
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