summer noons
Literal himself , good-natured and warm-hearted , the gift I had of tingeing life with romance -LRB- to put the thing optimistically -RRB- , of creating kingdoms out of back yards -- at which Julia and Russell sniffed -- held his allegiance firm . I must have been about twelve years of age when I realized that I was possessed of the bard 's inheritance . A momentous journey I made with my parents to Boston about this time not only stimulated this gift , but gave me the advantage of which other travellers before me have likewise availed themselves -- of being able to take certain poetic liberties with a distant land that my friends at home had never seen . Often during the heat of summer noons when we were assembled under the big maple beside the lattice fence in the Peters ' yard , the spirit would move me to relate the most amazing of adventures . Our train , for instance , had been held up in the night by a band of robbers in black masks , and rescued by a traveller who bore a striking resemblance to my Cousin Robert Breck . He had shot two of the robbers . These fabrications , once started , flowed from me with ridiculous ease .