HOME LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. 355 



had begun the day with a blessing. She is always full of fun 

 with her " Good-morning " to us : this salutation and the word 

 " Yes " are the extent of her English vocabulary, but she makes 

 good use of them. Constant sunshine seems to play about her, 

 and she is at all times ready, quick, and obliging. 



I may write to you from Vire after I have seen Lenormand, 

 that I may tell you of the old man and his wife. He writes me 

 that he " watches for me as the Jews do for Messiah." 



September 19th. I do not find that I pick up my strength very 

 fast, but shall probably get on better when forced to exert 

 myself on my way home. We leave the day after to-morrow, 

 and go to Vire to see Lenormand, and thence to Havre. 



Your letter from Ballitore was very pleasant to me, and your 

 recollections of early childhood most amusing. The old place 

 is, I suppose, but little changed, though emptied of all that 

 once made it a land of Goshen. Still the old walls in the 

 keeping of " the last leaf," if I may so call your sister, must 

 have many soothing associations. 



I wonder how the river now looks from the garden wall ! i 

 remember making a sketch of it, the garden and the back of 

 the house, from the field in front of the Retreat. Of course I 

 have lots of recollections of all the nooks and corners, and 

 though I was never much of a fisherman, I have assisted in 

 setting night-lines for trout in the bank opposite your garden. 

 This was soon after I came to school. 



I am indeed rejoiced to hear the good report you give of your 

 sister. Mind you give her an affectionate message from me. I 

 have a sincere regard for her, both for her own sake and as the 

 relict of my good old friend, who was so little appreciated in life, but 

 so full of sterling qualities in the eyes of those who knew him 

 well. I always connect his memory with the sixty-fifth Psalm, 

 which is one of my prime favourites. Look at it in the Bible 

 rather than in the Prayer Book. It first struck me several years 

 ago, when I stepped, as I often did, into their house one 

 morning on my way to College, and found him about to read 

 the Bible. I w r as under great anxiety at the time for friends at 

 sea, and the intense beauty of the fifth verse went to my 

 heart; but the whole Psalm is soothing and strengthening, 

 and he read it with such feeling and yet so simply. He had a 

 very delicate ear for sweet sounds, and an equally fine taste in 



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