310 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



some success to raise to the rank of a game of skill 

 from that of a game of chance. Other indoor games 

 than these I do not think that I ever knew him to 

 play. 



His principal indoor recreation always consisted in 

 reading; and in this he was omnivorous. Newspapers, 

 novels, pamphlets, magazines ; grave or serious, witty 

 or wise ; all were seized upon and read in all sorts of odd 

 moments. And he mostly had his pockets full of odds 

 and ends of literature which he had picked up at railway 

 bookstalls. He also, I am sorry to say, had a bad way 

 of borrowing books, and either forgetting to return them, 

 or else leaving them somewhere without the slightest 

 recollection of having done so. In just the same way 

 he used to leave his linen behind him at the various 

 places at which he stayed during his lecturing tours ; 

 and some used to come home by parcel post ; and some 

 never came at all. So that after about three tours of 

 average length he always required a new outfit. With 

 other people's books, of course, the matter was far more 

 serious ; and I am afraid that his inveterate forgetful- 

 ness in this respect was the cause of many losses to 

 many people. 



In reading and in conversation alike, there was one 

 subject with which my father would have nothing what- 

 ever to do ; and that, strange to say, was the subject of 

 politics. No matter how fiercely the storm of contro- 

 versy might wage ; no matter how great might be the 

 excitement throughout the country on some burning- 

 question of the day ; no one could elicit his views on 



