CHAP. XII.] HIS LOVE FOR HIS GRANDSON. 135 



my father and my brother in the latter's boat on the Thames. 

 The one is fishing and the other rowing. 



In May, Mr. Smee went abroad on business connected with 

 one of the companies to which he belonged. That he contrived 

 on this journey to see some of his favourite haunts, will be 

 perceived in the following letters he sent to his daughter. He 

 had intended to go in March ; but as he writes to her 



The weather indeed has been awful : terrible snow-storms ; horrible 

 gales and tempests; excessive rain; darkness; floods; eruptions of 

 Vesuvius. 



I intended to have gone abroad, but did not like the aspect of things. 



The poor children must suffer from this detestable weather. Tell 

 Georgey I really love him very much and should like to see him, and I 

 hope nice warm weather will come, and then his pretty flowers will grow 

 and grow, &c. 



Here I should perhaps give a passing allusion to an extra- 

 ordinary attachment (if I may so call it) which had sprung up 

 between himself and his little grandson; for no one who had 

 not been a witness to it could appreciate this attachment to 

 its full extent. Upon the child what pains would not the 

 grandfather bestow ! He would never tire of explaining to him 

 the different plants, and would take him frequently to the 

 Zoological Gardens to teach him not only the names of the 

 animals, but the habits of the various creatures that are 

 there kept. So often did they go that the keepers knew my 

 father and his little charge, and were only too eager to show 

 the child the peculiarities of the different animals committed to 

 their care. Even in the midst of business hours this grandson 

 was still often in his grandfather's thoughts, and he would at 

 those times go and search for books or toys, or send him letters 

 which, although written with the simplicity of a child, yet at 

 the same time always contained some knowledge worthy of a 

 great and good man. 



On sending a lock of his little grandson's hair, his daughter 

 received the following letter : 



Many thanks for your kind wishes and handsome donation, which 

 you only could have sent. This gift of gifts deserves a crystal box to 

 preserve it, and perhaps after I have attained my hundredth year, -and I 

 return to the earth of which I am made, and your kind present returns to 

 you, this little token of affection will be looked upon by you, himself, 

 and peradventure his descendant, with rare and curious interest, and 

 your thoughts will be carried back to time about persons past and with 

 hopes for time and persons to come. 



