APRIL 43 



staring him in the face, until at last he became well 

 known in that small circle which is able and keen to 

 recognise the best gifts. And then he began to 

 crave for the old place, and to feel that his work 

 could be as well done in a country home as else- 

 where ; so, since by that time the ties which had 

 bound me had snapped asunder, we came back 

 again, comparatively poor, to the village where we 

 had spent our early years of wealth. It was the 

 yearning for the soil and its native homely folk that 

 brought Jim back. " I should not like to die away 

 from them all," he said when he first told me what 

 he was about to do ; and I, who knew how deeply 

 rooted had been his affection for these humble 

 friends of his boyhood, could not wonder that he 

 should wish to come home to them. 



That is my brother's story, so far as it goes ; but 

 the saddest part is known only to himself, for he is 

 not one who has ever prated of his troubles. He 

 is happy enough now, I think, though I could desire 

 fuller joys for him, and little children to drag him 

 from his books and make him seem a boy again. 

 But I do not think this will ever be, though some- 

 times I wonder I cannot help wondering ; yet the 

 very idea is impossible, and I have never spoken of 

 it to mortal being. 



April 25. It has often struck me as odd that 

 no one has ever written about the garden boy. In 

 these days, when we have life-histories of every 

 genus from men to spiders, nobody has ever given 

 us the life-history of the garden boy, and yet no 

 type is more interesting if only you can get at him, 

 which is the difficulty. He is of so little importance 



