The reward of patient love, and flowers from the garden of thought

Front matter

Class Book.

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Introduction

many Putnams was named Putnamville. This was my birthplace, 1863.

Land was growing in value ; and as the larger trees were cut and sold the lumber business became less profitable. Several members of the family married ; family interests were divided, and other changes came about.

During the 50 's three of the boys became excited by the stories of easy gold in California, put mortgages on their property, and went to see for themselves. They were disappointed, and after loss of time and money, returned and tried to take up their former mode of making a living. But, they were now burdened with a mortgage and another misfortune had overtaken them. While on their journey they had contracted a disease called roving-fever, which causes a spirit of unrest, a result of which was that, instead of settling down, they increased their debt and returned to California.

During this second absence, a very important event in my life occurred, and my father, whose name was Herkimer W. Putnam, could have told his associates in California a story strange to relate, if not rightly received. The story as told by one man to another was, that he had a wife and five children in Canada and had never seen one of them. It was simply an example of punctuation and inflection. My birth occurred during his absence, and I was the one he had never seen.

After a short stay in California my father returned to Canada to settle up his affairs, and to take his family with him. In this latter hope he failed on account of my mother *s death, which occurred when I was but 14 months old.

So soon as he could make arrangements he started for California overland, taking me and my mother's sister with him.

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INTRODUCTION

When I was about four years old, my father and two uncles went to a new gold camp, leaving me with my aunt in San Francisco.

The aunt becoming tired of the lonely life among strangers, decided to return to Canada, which she did, taking me with her.

If she left for my father any way of knowing what had become of us my father failed to find it, and more than six months had passed before he received word of assurance that we were safe.

This might be called a case of kidnapping. Hence may I claim that I was kidnapped when I was 4 years old.

From that date on I was everybody's boy and nobody's boy until I came in possession of myself when I was nineteen years old.

It would be a crime of ingratitude for me to close this paragraph without saying that during these tender years, when the elements of character are being formed in the mind of the child, I was most fortunate in being among near relatives who gave me all the blessings of a home where the best social, moral, and Christian influences constantly surrounded me, and where Thrift, Energy, and Ambition were my constant companions.

At the age of 19, I graduated, not from, but through the Collegiate Institute of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. I say that I graduated through it because I was not one of the students. Instead, I studied as I could, where I could, and when I could, and worked on a farm during busy seasons, and attended examiaations at which I obtained my first teacher's diploma.

My experiences after that date all proved the truth of the saying that ^'Heaven helps those who help themselves."

I also learned that the world helps those who help them-

INTRODUCTION

selves, for I was given and offered help and encouragement on all sides.

I am now a gray-haired man and have filled many positions, in every case remaining as long as I wished to remain, and each and every position was offered to me, and many more that I could not accept.

I have a right to think that the world loves me, and I know that I love the world because it has been good to me, not so much in measure or quantity, but in quality. I am emotional, and sympathetic, and find such enjoj^ment in the pretty things of life that I think I have shed more tears of joy than of grief. I know the world is friendly, because I have learned that I cannot count my friends and do not know how to estimate them.

Since my 20th birthday I have taught school seven years, I have been accountant seven years for others, I have kept my own books twenty-two years, I have been a merchant twenty-two years and have been postmaster twenty-two years and notary public six.

The sum of all these periods of service would make it appear that I am a very old man, or raise a question regarding veracity. I might have added that I have occupied the position of husband twenty-five years. Just think of it, twenty-five years the servant of one woman.

The fact is that I am fifty-four years young, and that all my life I have been doing as many things as I could do and do them well.

Does anybody still wish to ask regarding my literary career? Let me answer that writing has been my chief occupation, a life time.

But, in sincerity let me answer also, that if the little book I am now offering to the world and its readers should prove

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INTRODUCTION

a success to the extent of winning' their approval and appreciation it will be my boast and pride during the rest of my life, that my first offering was accepted.

Does anyone ask why I should expect or hope that my initial offering should be accepted ? Let me answer, that I make no claims; that I have no record upon which to stand or fall.

My thoughts come to me ; they are my own, I do not gather them.

I have tried to express those thoughts as they came to me in words intended to convey the meaning I have wished to express.

Am I presuming if I say I hope that many will like my thoughts, and that none will be so critical of the manner of expressing them as to destroy their intended effect.

If any like my thoughts and words, we are congenial friends.

If any do not like my thoughts or my manner of expressing them, we are not enemies; I love people who have opinions of their own.

EDWARD EVERETT PUTNAM.

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