FIRST JOINT BOTANICAL STUDIES. 145 



But increased acquaintance soon dispelled these im- 

 pressions, and Black began to see that in this weaver he 

 had a man of uncommon mental vigour and ability, who 

 already possessed a great love of plants, much curious 

 knowledge on that and on many other subjects he was 

 himself ignorant of, a remarkable memory, and indomitable 

 energy. At first, John's progress in Botany was slow ; 

 indeed, very slow, for this scholar had never been by any 

 means " quick at the uptak','' ready in apprehension, and, in 

 regard to entirely new ideas at his time of life, dull more 

 than apt. But once grasped, once clearly perceived, they 

 became his own, thoroughly and permanently absorbed. 



John's visits increased in frequency, as intimacy deepened 

 on both sides, and as the men began to catch hold of each 

 other " with hooks of steel." John " grew upon " Charles so 

 much that, as Charles said, he " became as it were part of 

 himself, and if he did not come up of an evening, he felt a 

 blank in the day." As Charles has often declared, he soon 

 loved John "like a very brither." And John's affection 

 and esteem for him became equally deep and absorbing. 

 As he used to say, " Charlie Black was a bosom freend o' 

 mine ; " adding, like the solitary man he was, who valued 

 trustful secretiveness, "if I tell't him onything, it was keepit 

 there;" and concluding all references to their friendship 

 with a return to the original theme, as if it were a dulcet 

 melody that charmed him, " Ay, he was a great faavorite, a 

 bosom freend ! " Yet with all this admiration and trust, 

 there was one subject never once alluded to between them 

 during their long and close intimacy, because too painful 

 for either to speak of the central sorrow of John's life, his 

 unhappy relations with his wife. 



