A Son of the Middle BorderCHAPTER I Home from the WarA LL of this universe known to me in the year 1864 Xx. was bounded by the wooded hills of a little Wisconsin coulee, and its center was the cottage in which my mother was living alone-my father was in the war. As I project myself back into that mystical age, half lights cover most of the valley. The road before our doorstone begins and ends in vague obscurity-and Granma Green's house at the fork of the trail stands on the very edge of the world in a sinister region peopled with bears and other menacing creatures. Beyond this point all is darkness and terror.It is Sunday afternoon and my mother and her three children, Frank, Harriet and I (all in our best dresses) are visiting the Widow Green, our nearest neighbor, a plump, jolly woman whom we greatly love. The house swarms with stalwart men and buxom women and weTable of Contents CONTENTS; LIFE OF BACON; is home-Parents-Youlh-Residence at Cambridge-Early philosophical views-Entrance at Gray's Inn-On the Continent -Invention of his cypher-writing system-Death of his father and return to England-In monetary straits-Called to the Bar-Member of Parliament-Letter" of Advice to Qitun Elizabeth-His attitude towards the Puritans and Catholics - Sworn "Queen's Counsel Extraordinary"-His objections to the action of the Lords interfering with the rights of the Commons in financial questions-Registership of the Star Chamber-Rivalry of Sir Edward Coke for the hand of Sir Thos Cecil's daughter, and the offices of the Earl of Essex in the matter-The friendship of Essex and Bacon-The liberality of the former-Essex's administration in Ireland and his subsequent downfall-Bacon's prosecution in the case of Essex -Bacon receives his knighthood from James the First-The Afology in Certain Imputations concerning the late Earl of Essex-Appointed King's Counsel-His marriage to Alice Bar nham-Receives