h with a silver fork made
the thing quite clear.'

"He often referred to his boyish days, when he told me he
nearly poisoned half the house with his chemical infusions, and
spoiled the pans, with great delight. The 'Pilgrim's Progress'
was an early favorite with him. 'It was strange,' he said, 'how
it had been overlooked. Children are often misunderstood. When
I was a baby I have often been in the greatest terror, when, to
all appearance, I was quite still;--so frightened that I could
not make a noise. Crying, I believe, is oftener a sign of
happiness than the reverse. I was looked upon as a remarkable
child. My mother told me, when I was born she thought me an
ugly red thing; but my father took me up and said, 'There's no
sweeter baby any where than this.' He always thought too much
of me. I was very dull at school, and hated arithmetic; I
always had to count on my fingers.

"He once took me to the little cottage where he lived by the
Brathey, when Charles Lloyd and he were school-companions. Mrs.
Nicholson, of Ambleside, told me of a donkey-race which they
had from the market-cross to the end of the village and back,
and how Hartley came in last, and minus his white straw hat."

Those who remember the ordinary (and most extraordinary) dress that hung
about his small eager person, will smile at this entry in his journal of
a visit to Rydal chapel, and the reflections awakened therein:

"17th.--Sunday.--At Rydal chapel. Alas! I have been _Parcus
Deorum cultor et infrequens_ of late. Would I could say with
assurance, _Nunc interare cursus cogor relictos_. I never saw
Axiologus (Wordsworth) look so venerable. His cape cloak has
such a gravity about it. Old gentlemen should never wear light
great coats unless they be military; and even then Uncle Toby's
Roquelaure would be more becoming than all the frogs in Styx.
On the other hand, loose trowsers should never invest the
nether limbs of led. It looks as if the Septuagenarian were
ashamed of a diminished calf. The sable silk is good and
clerical, so are the gray pearl and the partridge. I revere
gray worsted and ridge and furrow for [Greek: Omak rites] his
sake, but perhaps the bright white lamb's wool doth most set
off the leg of an elderly man. The hose should be drawn over
the knees, unless the