CAROLINE LUC RET I A HERSCHEL. 739 



room, Alexander," [her third brother] " went with many others to follow their 

 relatives for some miles, to take a last look. I found myself now with my 

 mother, alone in a room all in confusion, in one corner of which my little brother 

 Dietrich lay in his cradle ; my tears flowed, like my mother's, but neither of us 

 could speak. I snatched a large handkerchief of my father's from a chair, and 

 took a stool to place it at my mother's feet, on which I sat down, and put into 

 her hands one corner of the handkerchief, reserving the opposite one for myself. 

 This little action actually drew a momentary smile into her face." 



They were gone a ye.ar, and of this period of separation she gives 

 no recollections ; but in her account of their welcome home we see 

 how affectionate she was and how neglected she felt, and the kind 

 treatment of her brother William could not fail to make a deep im- 

 pression upon her susceptible nature : 



" My mother, being very busy in preparing dinner, had suffered me to go all 

 alone to the parade to meet my father, but I could not find him anywhere, nor 

 anybody whom I knew ; so at last, when nearly frozen to death, I came home and 

 found them all at table. My dear brother William threw down his knife and 

 fork and ran to welcome, and crouched down to me, which made me forget all 

 my grievances. The rest were so happy at seeing one another again that my 

 absence had never been perceived." 



In 1757 it became apparent that William had not the strength to 

 stay in the Guards in war time, and his parents, with no small diffi- 

 culty, sent him away to England. 



When very young, Caroline went to the garrison school till three 

 in the afternoon, and then to another school to be taught knitting. 

 From the time she was six or seven years old, she says: 



" I was fully employed in providing my brothers with stockings, and remem- 

 ber that the first pair for Alexander touched the floor when I stood upright, fin- 

 ishing the front. Besides this my pen was frequently in requisition for writing, 

 not only my mother's letters to my father, but many a poor soldier's wife in our 

 neighborhood to her husband in camp." 



From 1757 till 1760 there is another gap in the record, several 

 pages having been torn from her manuscript belonging to this period. 

 In 1760 her father came home for good, broken in health and worn 

 out with hardships, and we are again furnished with some details of 

 the family history. He devoted himself for the rest of his life to the 

 musical education of his children, and gave lessons besides to the 

 numerous pupils who sought his instruction. Next to her brother 

 William, her father was the object of her dearest love. She was her 

 mother's companion and, assistant, and, as the income was straitened, 

 they together did all the housework. The mother was a diligent 

 spinner, and kept the family well stocked with household linen. Her 

 sister had not a patient temper, and was sometimes left, with her 

 goods and chattels, to be taken care of by her mother. As to Jacob, 

 who was often at home, and who developed into a dandy while in 

 England, she speaks of him as follows : 



