14 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 





early age a great deal of Scott, of Milton, and of 

 Pope's translation of the Iliad and Odyssey , and that 

 I delighted in what the family nicknamed " spouting " 

 verse. In middle life I feared that I had been an 

 intolerable prig, and cross-questioned many old family 

 friends about it, but was invariably assured that I 

 was not at all a prig, but seemed to " spout " for pure 

 enjoyment and without any affectation ; that I often 

 quoted very aptly on the spur of the moment, and 

 that I was a nice little child. My memories become 

 more or less continuous from about the age of five 

 or six, when I was trotted off to live at a dame's school 

 a mile away. During these and many subsequent 

 years, my sister Adele had the greater share of my 

 heart, and whenever I was at home I stayed by her 

 sofa-side most of the day. My other sisters teased 

 and petted me alternately ; they were relatively too 

 old to be really companions. 



It is curious how unchangeable characters are : my 

 eldest sister was just, my youngest was merciful. 

 When my bread was buttered for me as a child, the 

 former picked out the butter that filled the big holes, 

 the latter did not. Consequently I respected the 

 former, and loved the latter. A memory of this 

 trifling occurrence remained inseparably connected 

 in my mind with these dear sisters all my life, and I 

 often amused them by referring to it. 



My second sister, Lucy, married before I was ten 

 years old. She was bright, lovable, and very original. 

 Her house was like a second home to me during the 

 four years of boyhood that I spent at Birmingham. 

 I have indeed been fortunate in receiving the sisterly 

 affection that has fallen to "my lot. 



