n
effective combination upon the parental mind, and were amply rewarded by
half a sheet, acknowledging the receipt of a ten-shilling piece in a
match-box (the Arkwrights had a strange habit of sending coin of the
realm by post, done up like botanical specimens), with brief directions
as to the care of garden or collection, and perhaps a rude outline of
the head-master's nose--"In a great hurry, from your loving and grateful
Bro."

We kept their gardens tidy, preserved their collections from dust, damp,
and Keziah, and knitted socks for them. I learned to knit, of course.
Every woman knits in that village of stone. And "between lights"
Eleanor and I plied our needles on the boys' behalf, and counted the
days to the holidays.

We had fresh "fads" every holidays. Many of our plans were ambitious
enough, and the results would, no doubt, have been great had they been
fully carried out. But Midsummer holidays, though long, are limited in
length.

Once we made ourselves into a Field Naturalists' Club. We girls gave up
our "spare dress wardrobe" for a museum. We subdivided the shelves, and
proposed to make a perfect collection of the flora and entomology of the
neighbourhood. Eleanor and I really did continue to add specimens whilst
the boys were at school; but they came home at Christmas devoted, body
and soul, to the drama. We were soon converted to the new fad. The
wardrobe became a side-scene in our theatre, and Eleanor and Clement
laboured day and night with papers of powdered paint, and kettles of hot
size, in converting canvas into scenery. "Theatricals" promised to be a
lasting fancy; but the next holidays were in fine weather, and we made
the drop-curtain into a tent.

When the boys were at school, Eleanor and I were fully occupied. We took
a good deal of pains with our room: half of it was mine now. I had my
knick-knack table as well as Eleanor, my own books and pictures, my own
photographs of the boys and of the dear boys, my own pot plants, and my
own dog--a pug, given to me by Jack, and named "Saucebox." In Jack's
absence, Pincher also looked on me as his mistress.

Like most other conscientious girls, we had rules and regulations of our
own devising: private codes, generally kept in cipher, for our own
personal self-discipline, and laws common to us both for the employment
of our time in joint duties--lessons, parish work, and so forth. I think
we made rather too many rules, and that we re-made them too ofte