162 



be called, is improved in activity and in real 

 strength. I was preparing a bed for hyacinths ; 

 taking out the old soil, and putting nice fresh 

 earth, mixedVith sand, in its place. Wentworth 

 helped me to dig out the earth, and Frederick 

 and his wheelbarrow were for a long time busily 

 employed in taking it away. My aunt had given 

 me the bulbs, and we were anxious to complete 

 the job, before the weather should become too wet.' 



My uncle paid us a visit, and seemed pleased 

 with us all. He likes to see that sort of patient 

 perseverance it is more valuable, he says, than 

 genius ; and in the evening, he read to us the 

 following anecdote from Bakewell's Savoy, to 

 shew how much may be done by it. 



The mineral waters of Breda were formerly 

 covered by a sudden inundation of the river 

 Isere, and lost. In the summer of 1819, the 

 breaking down of the side of a glacier, in one of 

 the upper valleys of that river, produced another 

 inundation, which brought down with it an 

 immense quantity of stones and earth, that 

 blocked up the river and forced it into a new 

 channel. A miller and his family, who lived on 

 the banks, narrowly escaped with their lives, 

 and most of his little property and all his winter 

 stores were swept away. He was then an old 

 man ; but nature had given him that resolute 

 spirit, which regards common calamities only 

 as motives for additional exertion. He lost no 



