th elephantine dignity led
the attack, on the way to his favourite food. But (in spite of the
fable) his slow pace was against him, and in the ensuing _melee_ he
was left far behind.

"I could not learn much about Ivan, but of what I did discover some
things were easy enough for me to follow. He was fond of boating, a
taste I was not allowed to cultivate; but also he was fond of books,
the old woman said, and fond of sitting in the swing and reading, and
I heartily approved his choice in this respect.

"In helping to unpack my father's library, I had discovered a copy of
Walton and Cotton's 'Angler,' similar in every respect, but its good
condition, to the one that had charmed me at the inn. Sometimes the
precious volume was lent to me, and with it in my lap, and my arms
round the ropes of the swing, I passed many a happy hour. What fancies
I wove after studying those quaint, suggestive old prints! As sweet as
that 'contexture of woodbines, sweet-briar, and myrtle' in which the
anglers sat and sipped orange punch at Tottenham. The characters of
_Piscater_, _Venater_, and _Auceps_, and the style of their
conversations by the wayside, I found by no means unlike those of the
Pilgrim's Progress. The life-like descriptions of nature (none the
less attractive at my age from being quaintly mixed with fable and
symbolism, and pointed with pious morals) went straight to my heart;
and though I skipped many of the fish chapters, I re-read many of the
others, and 'The Complete Angler' did not a little to feed my strong
natural love for out-door life and country pleasures, to confirm my
habit of early rising, and to strengthen my attachment to the
neighbourhood of a river.

"But my father's library furnished another volume for my garden
studies. From him I inherited some of that taste which finds a magic
attraction in dictionaries and grammars; and I only wish that I had
properly mastered about half the languages in which it was the delight
of my girlhood to dabble. As yet, however, I only looked at the
'grammar corner' with ambitious eyes, till one day there came upon me
the desire to learn Russian. I asked my father for a Russian grammar,
and he pointed out the only one that he possessed. My father seldom
refused to lend us his books, and made no inquiries as to why we
wanted them; but he was intensely strict about their proper treatment,
so that we early learnt to turn over leaves from the top, to avoid
dogs' ears, and genera