UNCLB IN ENGLAND, 307 



2Qth. Now that winter has really begun, we 

 make a circle round the fire after dinner ; and we 

 are so comfortable and happy there that I am often 

 sorry when the time comes for leaving the room. 



We have various amusements ; on some days 

 we each invent little tales which are to turn on 

 some circumstance that is first agreed upon ; at 

 other times we have some of those question 

 plays in which you discover, by a particular 

 set of questions, the thoughts of another person. 

 One of our favourite occupations is doing arith- 

 metical questions in our heads. We have often 

 used a multiplier of three or four figures, which 1 

 assure you makes it hard work. My uncle and 

 aunt now and then join in this ; and being 01 

 course very ambitious to outdo them, we all 

 get into a sort of fever of exertion which makes 

 it very diverting, and the conqueror very trium- 

 phant. Then we compare the different methods 

 which we took, and each person finds out what 

 caused their mistakes. I am afraid I am ofterier 

 behind in the race than most of the party, for 

 beside their being much better arithmeticians 

 than me, I am so afraid of being wrong, that I 

 do not speak out in time even when I have my 

 answer ready and right. 



I must tell you one of the questions we had 

 this evening ; it was proposed by Caroline. In 

 one of the vignettes to Bewick's birds, there is a 

 man preparing to fasten himself to a team of 



