38 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



all boys get money, but the boy who wants books 

 saves his pennies. For twopence you can very 

 often pick up a book that you want ; for six- 

 pence you can have a choice ; a shilling will 

 tempt a second-hand bookseller to part with 

 what seems a really valuable book; half-a-crown 

 but such a boy never even sees a half-crown 

 piece. -Kichard Jefferies differed in one re- 

 spect from most boys who read everything. 

 They live in the world of books ; the outer 

 world does not exist for them ; the birds sing, 

 the lambs spring, the flowers blossom, but 

 they heed them not ; they grow short -sigh ted 

 over the small print ; they become more and 

 more enamoured of phrase, captivated by 

 words, charmed by style, so that they forget 

 the things around them. When they go 

 abroad they enact the fable of " Eyes and 

 No Eyes/ 7 playing the less desirable part, 

 Jefferies, on the other hand, was preserved 

 from this danger. His father, the reserved 

 and meditative man, took him into the fields 

 and turned over page after page with him of 

 the book of Nature, expounding, teaching, 

 showing him how to use his eyes, and con- 



