LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



familiar way of once wanting to go into her father's 

 study for a forgotten pair of scissors. It was the " holy 

 time," and she thought she could not wait, so she took 

 off her shoes and entered in stocking-feet, hoping to be 

 unobserved. Her father was working at his microscope 

 — he saw her, reached out one arm as she passed, drew 

 her to him and kissed her forehead. The guilty little 

 girl never trespassed again — how could she, with the 

 father that gave her only love ! 



That there was no sternness in this recognition of the 

 value of the working hours is further indicated in that 

 little Francis, aged six, once put his head in the door 

 and offered the father a sixpence if he would come out 

 and play in the garden. 



For several years Darwin was village magistrate. 

 Most of the cases brought before him were for poach- 

 ing or drunkenness. " He always seemed to be trying 

 to find an excuse for the prisoner, and usually suc- 

 ceeded," says his son ^ Once when a prosecuting 

 attorney complained because Darw^in had discharged 

 a prisoner, the magistrate, who might have fined the 

 impudent attorney for contempt of court, merely said,, 

 " ^A^hy, he *s as good as we are. If tempted in the same 

 w^ay I am sure that I w^ould have done as he has done. 

 We can't blame a man for doing what he has to do ! " 

 QThis was poor reasoning from a legal point of view, 

 Darwin afterward admitted that he did n't hear much 

 of the evidence, as his mind was full of orchids, but 

 the fellow looked sorry and he really couldn't punish 

 anybody who had simply made a mistake. 

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