From the journal of Hebert Flabeau* - an anti-biography
It has been said by students of reincarnation that
one chooses one’s parents, place to live, and general circumstances that one is born into. In that case, when I did my choosing, I
must have been distracted because, as a child, I detested the urban locale. I often wished that I could grow up in the countryside,
the Wild West, a leech-infested swamp, or any tract of forest dense enough to require Houdini mentoring for a weasel to pass through.
The city had its own distinct nature life. In the morning you could wake to the sound of birds coughing. They say that if you drink
water from the Fountain of Youth you will never get a day older. The same could be said of certain sources of America’s drinking water.
*Biographical researchers are in agreement that Hebert Flabeau
is
a shadow character of the emerging nature writer, Josef Graf.