fortable. On the walls were
portraits of the family whose house this was; by name, Campbell; the
house-painter, or wood-grainer, one would suppose, had a leaning towards
this branch of art. I never saw the originals of these portraits, but,
upon the assumption that they had been faithfully interpreted by the
artist, I used to think, in my childish folly, that the refrain of the
old song, "The Campbells are Coming," was meant as a phrase or threat to
frighten people. Who would not have run upon such an announcement? As
I have already made one confession in these pages not reflecting credit
upon myself, I may as well make another now. Just thirty years after
the events I am describing, somebody wrote to me from Rock Park, stating
that the local inhabitants were desirous of putting up on the house
which Hawthorne had occupied there a marble or bronze slab, recording
the fact for the benefit of pilgrims. The committee, however, did not
know which of three or four houses was the right one, and the writer
enclosed photographs of them all, and requested me to put a cross over
our former habitation. Now, all the houses in Rock Park had been turned
out of the same mould, and I knew no more than my interrogator which was
which. But I reflected that the committee had been put to trouble and
expense for photographs, postage-stamps, and what not, and that all that
was really wanted was something to be sentimental over. So, rather than
disappoint them, I resorted to a kind of sortes Virgillana; I shut my
eyes, turned round thrice, and made a mark at hazard on the line of
photographs. The chances against my having hit it right were only four
to one; the committee were satisfied, the pilgrims have been made happy,
and it is difficult to see where harm has been done. Nevertheless, the
matter has weighed somewhat on my conscience ever since, and I am glad
to have thus lightened myself of it. What would one better do in such
circumstances? Is history written in this way?

The custom of our family in America had been to take all our meals
together; but in England the elders take lunch at noon, tea at four or
five, and dinner at seven or eight, while the children dine at noon and
sup at six. This arrangement was adopted in Rock Park. My father used to
leave home for the consulate at nine, and return--unless kept away by an
official or social engagement--at five or six. There was appointed
for us children a nurse or governess, to oversee and