The Winchester weekly appeal. [volume] (Winchester, Tenn.) 1856-1856, 1856-07-19
From "Rhyme. Romance ard Revery."
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS,
40, life, how pleasant is thy morningl"

In the whole human race, | believe
there are few, indeed, who do not dwell
with pleasure on the recollections of
their early days. Fortune may have
smiled upon our more advanced years;
knowledge may have been acquired;
fame may have been won; yet, who
would not sacrifice all he has attained
and acquired to return again to the
days of his infancy? They live in the
memory with as much vididness as a
thing Of yesterday; time passes over
them in vain; it may destroy all else.
but the sports and scenes of childhood
ever occupy green place in the mind;
distance has no effect on them-age
cannot destroy them: even in our
dreams, they are with us, a throng of
sweet yet sorrowlul remembrances.
If any one absent himself from the
place of his birth, for the period Of ten
or dozen years, what Il change does
he perceive on his return, both in the
inhabitants and scenery:-most Of the
companions of his young days are
scattered far and wide, and those that
remain have thrown off their wonted
habits of gaiety and frankness, and a
formal and reserved greeting is all he
obtains from them. A dwelling, I'M
lovely in itself, yet endeared to him as
the scene of former mirth and festivity,
is now levelled with the dust, and a
more modern habitation usurps its
place--fairer, perchance, to the view
Of strange eyes, yet how much less
worthy Of admiration does it seem to
him than the ancient tenement which
lives in his remembrance. A venera-
BILE tree, which has often been his pro-
tcctor from the storm, and amid the
lofty branches of which he has achiev-
ed many feats Of boyish daring, has
fallen beneath the axe of the spoiler.
The little gdfden-plot, which was so
much cherished and so assiduously
cultivated, is now uprooted, and its
very site undistinguishable. Even the
members ofhis own household is chan.
ged; some have withered and died in
their spring; some have embarked on
the sea of commerce, and become es-
tranged from their old affections; and
perhaps an aged grandsire, of whom
he was the favoritc, has passed away,
with his silvery locks, benignant smile
and eloquent variations, and sought
the habitation of darkness and the
worm"
The mates of our boyhood; our ma
ny glad and careless schoolfellows,
how they were separated from us, all
to follow their destined avocations, I'M
til at last we also departed. What a
source of pleasure it is, when after a
lapse of years, we meet with fellow
student--with what delight do we dis.
course with him Of by.gone days--of
the little tricks of mischief we played
on the usher-of that season ofjoy and
confusion, when we broke up for the
vacation and scampered away, like
captive birds flying to liberty and
green fields. But pleasing as it is to
meet with an old schoolfellOw, there is
something sad intermixed with the
meeting:--he may cast of his cares
aud thoughts Of business for short
period, whilst he talks of times "depar.
TED never to return"--yet, you gener-
ally find him so tainted by mingling
with the shutting crowd of this worlds
Traffic, that you look in vain for the