1858. FAR BEN IN HEAVEN. 453 



the other sex, lounging in an easy chair, making pretence of 

 studying and working. His name, Pussy will spell for you, if 

 you give her letters of the alphabet, taking care, of course, that 

 she is in the mesmeric rapture, and putting down the whole al- 

 phabet before her on the floor. She will then hunt among the 

 letters till she finds one, snatch it up like a mouse, and deposit 

 it in a corner, then another hunt, and another deposit, and so 

 on, till the whole word is made thus : D S I E , 

 which being interpreted reads Dosie, a name given to me by, 

 we won't say whom, because I am always in a doze. You will 

 then umnesmerize Pussy, and give her a bowl of cream. Your 

 loving GEORGE." 



Such are the directions given to a sister to discover the spring 

 retreat. Notes to his mother speak of the house as " delight- 

 fully situated, looking out over a wide stretch of hill and valley, 

 with something higher than hills on the horizon, a stream in the 

 lowest valley-bed, and fields between, occupied at present by 

 matron sheep with lambs, some black, some white. One patient 

 mother has, by maternal right or adoption, both a black and a 

 white lamb, and I interpret her language towards the thirsty 

 and impatient couple to be 



1 Drink fair 

 My piebald pair.' 



" I wonder if an American ewe has ever one twin black and 

 the other white ? I reckon not. The greatest nation in crea- 

 tion would be endangered by such an event. Poor Blackie 

 would be quickly doomed to Lynch law. . . . Before I left 

 Edinburgh, a friend told me that his late grandmother, when 

 nearly ninety, speaking of heaven, said, 'It was nae for the 

 like of Jenny Brown and her to expect to get far ben ; but 

 may be they would get seats on the hinmost 1 benks near the 

 door.' Good old body, I hope she is far ben by this time." 



" Tuesday. 



" As I have not the porcelain tablet 2 beside me, I pick up 



1 Farthest back seats. 



2 Conversation with his mother was often carried on by means of the tablet al- 

 luded to. It is now preserved, with the last words he wrote on it, no one being 

 permitted to use it after him. 



