It has ever been a great delight to me to engage elderly people in conversation. As a child, the accounts of incidents during their lives fascinated me, they fascinate me now, and very especially, the reminiscences of Colonial life in Panama.
I acquired many years ago the habit of taking notes of any interesting stories I would hear, - always hoping that my son would make use of them some day, and publish them in book form. I hardly felt equal to doing it myself. But repeatedly, when relating some of these anecdotes, I have been asked, "Why don't you write that, just as you have told it?" In this way encouragement has come from many a kind listener, and at last I have been persuaded to tell my little stories.
