boys like our boys, a wholesome experience of having other
people's tastes and views crammed down our throats has modified our
ideas in this respect. A strong dose of eulogistic biography of the
brothers of a gushing acquaintance made the names of Clem and Jack
sacred to our domestic circle for ever; and what I have endured from a
mangy, over-fed, ill-tempered Skye-terrier, who is the idol of a lady of
our acquaintance, has led me sometimes to wonder if visitors at the
Vicarage are ever oppressed by the dear boys.

I'm afraid it is possible--poor dear things!

I have positively heard people say that Saucebox is ugly, though he has
eyes like a bull-frog, and his tongue hangs quite six inches out of his
mouth, and--in warm weather or before meals--further still! However, I
keep him in very good order, and never allow him to be troublesome to
people who do not appreciate him. For I have observed that there are
people who (having no children of their own) hold very just and severe
views about spoiled boys and girls, but who (having dogs of their own)
are much less clear-sighted on the subject of spoiled terriers and
Pomeranians. And I do not want to be like that--dear as the dear boys
are!

Certainly, seeing all sorts of people with all sorts of peculiarities is
often a great help towards trying to get rid of one's own objectionable
ones. But like the sketching, one sometimes gets into despair about it,
and though the process of learning an art may be even pleasanter than to
feel one's self a master in it, one cannot say as much for the process
of discovering one's follies. I should like to get rid of _them_ in a
lump.

Eleanor said so one day to her mother, but Mrs. Arkwright said: "We may
hate ourselves, as you call it, when we come to realize failings we have
not recognized before, and feel that there are probably others which we
do not yet see as clearly as other people see them, but this kind of
impatience for our perfection is not felt by those who love us, I am
sure. It is one's greatest comfort to believe that it is not even felt
by GOD. Just as a mother would not love her child the better for its
being turned into a model of perfection by one stroke of magic, but does
love it the more dearly every time it tries to be good, so I do hope and
believe our Great Father does not wait for us to be good and wise to
love us, but loves us, and loves to help us in the very thick of our
struggles with folly and sin."

B