hes wide over all, giving room to
multitudes of stars by night, and long processions of clouds
blown from the sea; but also, in the childish memory where
these pictures live, to deeps of celestial blue in the
endless days of summer. An odd, out-of-the-way little town,
ours, on the extreme western edge of Europe; our next
neighbors, sunset way, being citizens of the great new
republic, which indeed, to our imagination, seemed little if
at all farther off than England in the opposite direction."

Of the cottage in which he spent most of his childhood and youth he
writes:--

"Opposite the hall door a good-sized walnut-tree leaned its
wrinkled stem towards the house, and brushed some of the
second-story panes with its broad, fragrant leaves. To sit at
that little upper window when it was open to a summer
twilight, and the great tree rustled gently, and sent one
leafy spray so far that it even touched my face, was an
enchantment beyond all telling. Killarney, Switzerland,
Venice, could not, in later life, come near it. On three
sides the cottage looked on flowers and branches, which I
count as one of the fortunate chances of my childhood; the
sense of natural beauty thus receiving its due share of
nourishment, and of a kind suitable to those early years."

At last a position in the Customs presented itself:--

"In the spring of 1846 I gladly took leave forever of
discount ledgers and current accounts, and went to Belfast
for two months' instruction in the duties of Principal Coast
Officer of Customs; a tolerably well-sounding title, but
which carried with it a salary of but L80 a year. I trudged
daily about the docks and timber-yards, learning to measure
logs, piles of planks, and, more troublesome, ships for
tonnage; indoors, part of the time practiced customs
book-keeping, and talked to the clerks about literature and
poetry in a way that excited some astonishment, but on the
whole, as I found at parting, a certain degree of curiosity
and respect. I preached Tennyson to them. My spare time was
mostly spent in reading and haunting booksellers' shops
where, I venture to say, I laid out a good deal more than
most people, in proportion to my income, and managed to get
glimpses of many books which I could not afford or did not
care to buy.