1843-1845] Homoeopathic Stories 87 



I ended with protest that although I had done Doddy 

 justice, they were not to suppose that Annie was not a 

 good little soul bless her little body. Absence makes me 

 very much in love with my own dear three chickens. . . . 

 You were quite right to send me sneers versus Mr Scott. 

 I have amused them here with homoeopathic stories. My 

 father observes that as long as he can remember there has 

 always been something wonderful, more or less of the same 

 kind, going on, and there have always been people weak 

 enough to believe, and he says, slapping both knees, he 

 supposes there always will be, so that he thinks Mr Scott no 

 greater a fool than other past and future fools; a more 

 charitable belief than I can indulge in. By the way I told 

 him of my dreadful numbness in my ringer ends, and all the 

 sympathy I could get was, " Yes yes exactly tut tut, 

 neuralgic, exactly, yes, yes ! !" nor will he sympathize about 

 money, " stuff and nonsense ' is all he says to my fears 

 of ruin and extravagance. . . . 



Elizabeth Wedgiuood to her sister Emma Darwin. 



MAER, Tuesday [1844]. 



I think Willy [aged 4] must have the sweetest and most 

 affectionate disposition in the world. We are all charmed 

 with your anecdote of him, Aunt Sarah especially. I hope 

 he will keep his resolution always to comfy Annie, and I 

 daresay he will easily understand the distinction of 

 duties between himself and Charles. 



He did not always charm his great-aunt Sarah. A few 

 years later, to her horror and amazement, he expressed in 

 her presence a fervent wish to have seen an accident which 

 was being mentioned a dog run over by a train. She had 

 no understanding of boy nature, or indeed of human 

 nature. 



