VII 



His Temper 199 



which I heard him tell my mother was ' exceeding 

 strong ' ; he discoursed in the evening to his beloved 

 friend Dr. Oakeshott, also on that powder. I took an 

 early opportunity to possess myself of that canister, 

 and, desirous of testing the strength of the powder 

 and of also seeing how military mines worked, — affairs 

 which I had been hearing and reading about just then 

 in connection with the Franco -Prussian War, — I in- 

 advertently succeeded in blowing a tub of manure- 

 water over our great spring blanket -wash that 

 was hanging on a clothes-line hard by, bringing 

 down on myself the usual prophecies of an awful 

 end, and an immediate personal chastisement into 

 the bargain. That was a truly awful row : my 

 mother said he should not bring sucJi things into 

 the place, and my father appealed to the gods for 

 information as to why he should have such a child ; 

 just as if he never, never used gunpowder for any 

 purpose in his whole life, and could not conceive 

 how any human being could do so. Then our 

 tastes in literature were similar, and we both liked 

 to read a book through quietly when we once 

 commenced it ; therefore, under my adverse fate, 

 the chances were about ten to one that the very 

 book I took out of his room was the identical one 

 he was reading, and another paternal gale would come 

 my way, and my mother would be informed she 

 had no right to let that child read such books 

 (a hurricane in connection with Norman Lockyer's 

 Solar Physics was about the worst I remember). 



