that none but the mother believed he 'would live. The 

 doctor quoted a line from Richard III., " Sent before 

 my time into this breathing world scarce half made 

 up," and gave the infant into the keeping of an old 

 nurse with an ominous shake of the head, and went 

 his way, absolved. His time was too valuable to waste 

 on such a useless human mite. 



The persistent words of the mother that the child 

 should not must not die possibly had something to 

 do with keeping the breath of life in the puny man- 

 child. The fond mother had given him the name of his 

 father, even before birth ! He was to live to do the 'work 

 that the man now dead had hoped to do, that is, live 

 a long and honest life, and leave the fair acres more 

 valuable than he found them. 



And such was the inauspicious beginning of what 

 Herbert Spencer declared was the greatest life since, 

 three hundred years before Christ, Aristotle studied 

 the stars and made wise guesses into the secrets of 

 nature. 



LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



'UTSIDE of India the lot of widowhood 

 is not especially to be pitied. A widow 

 has beautiful dreams, while the married 

 woman copes with a stern reality. Then, 

 no phase of life is really difficult when you 

 accept it ; and the memory of a great love 

 lost is always a blessing and a benediction to the one 

 who endures the first cruel shock. 



67 



