Other Fiction Boreham, Frank W.: Mushrooms on the Moor. V1. 19-Mar-2011

[weatherwax]

Frank William Boreham (3 March 1871, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England - 18 May 1959, Melbourne, Victoria) was a Baptist preacher best known in New Zealand, Australia, and England. (His birth coincided with the end of the Franco-Prussian War and he could say in later life that, "Salvoes of artillery and peals of bells echoed across Europe on the morning of my birth.")

Excerpt:
Really, as I sit here in this quiet study, and glance round at the books upon the shelves, I can scarcely refrain from laughing at the fun we have had together. And to think of the way in which they came into my possession! It seems like a fairy story or a chapter from romance. If a man wants to spend an hour or so as delightfully as it is possible to spend it, let him invite to his fireside some old and valued friend, the companion of many a frolic and the sharer of many a sorrow; let him seat his old comrade there in the place of honour on the opposite side of the hearth, and then let them talk. 'Do you remember, Tom, the way we met for the first time?' 'My word, I do! Shall I ever forget it?' And Tom slaps his knee at the memory of it, and they enjoy a long and hearty laugh together. It is not that the circumstances under which they met were so ludicrous or dramatic; it is that they were so commonplace. It seems, on looking back, the oddest chance in the world that first brought them together, the merest whim of chance, the veriest freak of circumstance; and yet how all life has taken its colour and drawn its enrichment from that casual meeting!