56 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



He had already before this begun to write. 



" I remember " I quote from a letter which 

 has already furnished information about these 

 early days " that he once showed his brother 

 a roll of manuscript which he said ' meant 

 money ' some day." It was necessary in that 

 house to think of money first. 



I wonder what that manuscript was. Per- 

 haps poetry a clever lad's first attempt at 

 verse ; there is never a clever lad who does 

 not try his hand at verse. Perhaps it was a 

 story we shall see that he wrote many stories. 

 At that time his handwriting was so bad that 

 when he began to feed the press, the com- 

 positors bought him a copybook and a penholder 

 and begged him to use it. He did use it, and 

 his handwriting presently became legible at 

 least, but it remained to the end a bad hand- 

 writing. His note-books especially are very 

 hard to read. 



He was left by his father perfectly free and 

 uncontrolled. He was allowed to do what he 

 pleased or what he could find to do. This 

 liberty of action made him self- reliant. It 

 also, perhaps, increased his habit of solitude 



