CHILDHOOD. 5 



Hospital should be given up, in order that the family 

 might remove to Oxford. And there a house was taken 

 in the High Street, which was subsequently vacated 

 for another in Holywell Street, and that again in its 

 turn for a third in Broad Street. 



As the boy still continued very delicate, his father 

 saw that the only chance for him was to keep him at 

 home for the present, and to allow him to live as 

 healthy and natural a life as possible. Outdoor exercise 

 and amusements, therefore, were strongly encouraged, 

 and the child learned to run and swim and climb with 

 a facility which few boys of his own age could equal. 

 In the water, more especially, he was always per- 

 fectly at home, and would tumble in backwards, or 

 head foremost, and dive for eggs and three-penny 

 pieces, and even play a sort of aquatic leap-frog, as 

 readily as though the river were his natural home. 

 Indeed, he spent much of his time on its banks or in 

 its waters. There were trout to be tickled, crayfish to 

 be caught, and creatures innumerable to be watched, 

 and perhaps brought home for the aquarium. The 

 spirit of emulation was rife, and every boy tried to do 

 better than his fellows. And so each and all came to 

 be as familiar with the water as with the dry land, 

 never from the first having learned to consider it as an 

 element to be dreaded. 



The crayfish were caught in rather a primitive 

 fashion. Paddling along in the water by the banks, 

 the boys would carefully investigate every hole, until 

 the long antennae of the crayfish were felt projecting. 



