riably taking more butter than they want. Have you not
seen the anxious look (almost mesmeric) which such persons fix on
the article? They would feel it a relief if they might bury it out
of their sight by popping it into their own mouths and swallowing
it down; and they are really made happy if the person on whose
plate it lies unused suddenly breaks off a piece of toast (which
he does not want at all) and eats up his butter. They think that
this is not waste.

Now Miss Matty Jenkins was chary of candles. We had many devices
to use as few as possible. In the winter afternoons she would sit
knitting for two or three hours--she could do this in the dark, or
by firelight--and when I asked if I might not ring for candles to
finish stitching my wristbands, she told me to "keep blind man's
holiday." They were usually brought in with tea; but we only burnt
one at a time. As we lived in constant preparation for a friend
who might come in any evening (but who never did), it required
some contrivance to keep our two candles of the same length, ready
to be lighted, and to look as if we burnt two always. The candles
took it in turns; and, whatever we might be talking or doing, Miss
Matty's eyes were habitually fixed upon the candle, ready to jump
up and extinguish it and to light the other before they had become
too uneven in length to be restored to equality in the course of
the evening.

One night, I remember this candle economy particularly annoyed me.
I had been very much tired of my compulsory "blind man's holiday,"
especially as Miss Matty had fallen asleep, and I did not like to
stir the fire and run the risk of awakening her; and so I could
not even sit on the rug, and scorch myself with sewing by firelight,
according to my usual custom....

187. A LIST OF BOOKS FOR READING. These books are of a varied character
and are all interesting and of recognized excellence in their English.
Most of them are books that, as a matter of general education,
should be read by everyone.

Fiction:
Treasure Island--Stevenson.
Kidnapped--Stevenson.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--Stevenson.
The Scarlet Letter--Hawthorne.
Twice Told Tales--Hawthorne.
The Luck of Roaring Camp--Bret Harte.
Tales of Mystery and Imagination--Poe.
Silas Marner--Eliot.
Robinson Crusoe--Defoe.
Ivanhoe--Scott.
Henry Esmond--Thackeray.
Pilgrim's Progress--Bunyan.
The Spy--Cooper.
The Man without a Country--Hale.
Tales of a Travell