I was the only child for the first eight years of life。 This meant my parents had to find ways to keep me out of their hair， particularly during the summers when mother and I would live weekdays alone at grandmother's cottage in the Michigan woods。 Thus I was encouraged to develop hobbies: drawing， solitaire， reading and collections of such things as coins， feathers， stones， insects and， especially， stamps。 An edition of this book appearing as a donation here at Heirloom Books in Chicago took me I was the only child for the first eight years of life。 This meant my parents had to find ways to keep me out of their hair， particularly during the summers when mother and I would live weekdays alone at grandmother's cottage in the Michigan woods。 Thus I was encouraged to develop hobbies: drawing， solitaire， reading and collections of such things as coins， feathers， stones， insects and， especially， stamps。 An edition of this book appearing as a donation here at Heirloom Books in Chicago took me back to when I had a copy which contributed to my burgeoning interest in political geography encouraged by such stamp work。 。。。more