PLEEMING AND HIS SONS 171 



' July 7th. My chief difficulty with Austin is 

 to get him measured for a pair of trousers. Hither- 

 to I have failed, but I keep a stout heart and 

 mean to succeed. Frewen the observer, in de- 

 scribing the paces of two horses, says " Polly 

 takes twenty-seven steps to get round the school. 

 I couldn't count Sophy, but she takes more than 

 a hundred." ' 



' Feb. 18th, 1877. We all feel very lonely with- 

 out you. Frewen had to come up and sit in my 

 room for company last night and I actually kissed 

 him, a thing that has not occurred for years. 

 Jack, poor fellow, bears it as well as he can, and 

 has taken the opportunity of having a fester 

 on his foot, so he is lame and has it bathed, and 

 this occupies his thoughts a good deal.' 



* Feb. 19th. As to Mill, Austin has not got the 

 list yet. I think it will prejudice him very much 

 against Mill but that is not my affair. Educa- 

 tion of that kind ! . . . I would as soon cram 

 my boys with food and boast of the pounds they 

 had eaten, as cram them with literature.' 



But if Fleeming was an anxious father, he did 

 not suffer his anxiety to prevent the boys from 

 any manly or even dangerous pursuit. Whatever 

 it might occur to them to try, he would carefully 

 show them how to do it, explain the risks, and 

 then either share the danger himself or, if that 

 were not possible, stand aside and wait the event 



