?'

"'You have an old and a violent antipathy, I believe, to any thing like
a school.'

"'True. It was early and violent. Had not you?'

"'No. I went to school with pleasure; for I thought to read and write
were accomplishments of some value.'

"'Indeed? Then I misunderstood you just now. I thought you said that,
had you the strength of a man, you should prefer the plough and the book
to the needle. Whence, supposing you a female, I inferred that you had a
woman's love for the needle and a fool's hatred of books.'

"My father calling me from without, I now made a motion to go. 'Stay,'
continued he, with great earnestness, throwing aside his
knitting-apparatus, and beginning in great haste to pull off his
stockings. 'Draw these stockings over your shoes. They will save your
feet from the snow while walking to your horse.'

"Half angry, and half laughing, I declined the offer. He had drawn them
off, however, and, holding them in his hand, 'Be persuaded,' said he;
'only lift your feet, and I will slip them on in a trice.'

"Finding me positive in my refusal, he dropped the stockings; and,
without more ado, caught me up in his arms, rushed out of the room, and,
running barefoot through the snow, set me fairly on my horse. All was
done in a moment, and before I had time to reflect on his intentions. He
then seized my hand, and, kissing it with great fervour, exclaimed, 'A
thousand thanks to you for not accepting my stockings. You have thereby
saved yourself and me the time and toil of drawing on and drawing off.
Since you have taught me to wonder, let me practise the lesson in
wondering at your folly, in wearing worsted shoes and silk stockings at
a season like this. Take my counsel, and turn your silk to worsted and
your worsted to leather. Then may you hope for warm feet and dry. What!
Leave the gate without a blessing on your counsellor?'

"I spurred my horse into a gallop, glad to escape from so strange a
being. I could give you many instances of behaviour equally singular,
and which betrayed a mixture of shrewdness and folly, of kindness and
impudence, which justified, perhaps, the common notion that his
intellects were unsound. Nothing was more remarkable than his
impenetrability to ridicule and censure. You might revile him for hours,
and he would listen to you with invincible composure. To awaken anger or
shame in him was impossible. He would answer, but in such a way as to
show him totally unaware of your t