Page:Pen And Pencil Sketches - Volume I.djvu/9

Rh friends, whether those of youth or manhood , it will be found, I hope, that I have said nothing cynical or ill- natured. The turn for sarcasm, which it was said I had in my salad days, was, I am inclined to think , rather a habit of seeing everything on its ludicrous side, than the outcome of a malevolent disposition. It was "meat and drink to me to see a clown," and I seldom resisted the temptation to chaff an individual who answered to that description ; bid still I treated him as Walton did the worm with which he baited his hook, "as if I loved him." As years advance, the milk of human kindness flows in a gentler stream — one looks less for peculiarities than for good qualities in man, and while not expecting too much of human nature, one is glad to find more than enough to esteem and love. Pleasant as the occupation of writing the following pages has been, that pleasure has been often tinctured with sadness, as the thought would occur of the friends that are gone — of the old familiar faces that shall be seen no more. With the memory of each one is associated a flood of recollections, whether friend or comrade cut down in the flower of youth with hopes and aspirations unrealised, or departed full of years, the long day s work accomplished.

Among the few qualifications of which I can boast