PERSONAL 129 



only from the facts he actually recorded, but also, 

 and perhaps even more, from his style, we seem to 

 see much of what the author felt and thought. A 

 man's style is the man himself, and certainly a lead- 

 ing feature in Mr. Morris's style was, that his own 

 tastes and traits of character were so clearly revealed 

 in it. 



As in conversation he had the happy knack of 

 telling a simple story with good effect, so in writing 

 he would occasionally preface the narration of a 

 plain fact by an introduction, or garnish it by light 

 touches, that seemed to interest you more than the 

 particular thing that caused him to take up his pen. 

 Thus, for example, in writing to one of the natural 

 history journals about a pair of Wild Ducks which 

 had built on the top of a straw stack near a neigh- 

 bouring farm-house, he spins out quite a long story, 

 filling nearly three times as much space as that re- 

 quired to relate the fact itself, and in it you see 

 something of the man. It was on a Sunday, "in 

 the cool of the day," after his Evening Service at 

 church was over, that he was sitting in his garden. 

 He alludes to the recent restoration of the little 

 church, and of the advantage of evening over after- 

 noon services, as well as that of preaching in words 

 that plain folk can understand ; then he approaches 

 more nearly the point that he wishes to come to, and 

 he does this in a way so happy and so like himself 

 that the ipsissima verba of his telling will, I hope, 

 bear repetition, for they were written nearly twenty 

 years ago : " I was sitting down, as I have said, 



I 



