When the boys come into my ...

When the boys come into my yard for leave to gather horse-chestnuts, I own I enter into nature\'s game, and affect to grant the permission reluctantly, fearing that any moment they will find out the imposture of that showy chaff. But this tenderness is quite unnecessary; the enchantments are laid on very thick. Their young life is thatched with them. Bare and grim to tears is the lot of the children in the hovel I saw yesterday; yet not the less they hang it round with frippery romance, like the children of the happiest fortune.
When the boys come into my yard for leave to gather horse-chestnuts, I own I enter into nature's game, and affect to grant the permission reluctantly, fearing that any moment they will find out the imposture of that showy chaff. But this tenderness is quite unnecessary; the enchantments are laid on very thick. Their young life is thatched with them. Bare and grim to tears is the lot of the children in the hovel I saw yesterday; yet not the less they hang it round with frippery romance, like the children of the happiest fortune.

Quotes from the same author

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
Our distrust is very expensive.
Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.
Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.