The choice was mine and mine completely, I could have any prize that I desired. I could burn with the splendour of the brightest fire, or else - or else I could choose time. 2. Remember I was very young then, and a year was forever and a day. So what use could fifty, sixty, seventy be? I saw the lights and I was on my way. And how I lived! How they shone ! But how soon the lights were gone!