They began writing by taking words out of printed books:  finding out which letter was which, by asking me, or asking those who knew the letters one from the other; and, by imitating bits of my writing, it is surprising how soon they began to write a hand like mine, very small, very faint-stroked, and nearly plain as print.  The first use that any of them made of the pen, was to write to me, though in the same house with them.  They began doing this in mere scratches, before they knew how to make any one letter; and, as I was always folding up letters and directing them, so were they; and they were sure to receive a prompt answer, with most encouraging compliments.  All the meddling and teasing of friends, and, what was more serious, the pressing prayers of their anxious mother, about sending them to school, I withstood without the slightest effect on my resolutions.  As to friends, preferring my own judgment to theirs, I did not care much; but an expression of anxiety, implying a doubt of the soundness of my own judgment, coming, perhaps twenty times a day, from her whose care they were as well as mine, was not a matter to smile at, and very great trouble did it give me.  My answer at last was, as to the boys, I want them to be like me; and as to the girls “in whose hands can they be so safe as in yours?  Therefore my resolution is taken; go to school they shall not.”

Nothing is much more annoying than the intermeddling of friends in a case like this.  The wife appeals to them, and “good breeding,” that is to say nonsense, is sure to put them on her side.  Then they, particularly the women, when describing the surprising progress made by their own sons at school, used, if one of mine were present, to turn to him, and ask to what school he went, and what he was learning?  I leave any one to judge of his opinion of her; and whether he would like her the better for that!  “Bless me, so tall, and not learned anything yet!” “Oh, yes, he has,” I used to say; “he has learned to ride, and hunt, and shoot, and fish, and look after cattle and sheep, and to work in the garden, and to feed his dogs, and to go from village to village in the dark.”  This was the way I used to manage with troublesome customers of this sort.  And how glad the children used to be, when they got clear of such criticising people!  And how grateful they felt to me for the protection which they saw that I gave them against that state of restraint, of which other people’s boys complained!  Go whither they might, they found no place so pleasant as home, and no soul that came near them affording them so many means of gratification as they received from me.

THE CAP THAT FITS [Sidenote:  Austin Dobson]

  “Qui seme epines n’aille dechaux”

SCENE—­A Salon with blue and white panels.  Outside, persons pass and repass upon a terrace.