antime I'm working
hard at the Psalter, which I am almost sure Susie will like.

* * * * *

BRANTWOOD.

I am so very glad you like Sir Philip so much.

I've sent for, and hope to get him for you. He was shot before he had
done half his Psalter--His sister finished it, but very meanly in
comparison, you can tell the two hands on the harp at a mile off.

The photograph--please say--like all photos whatsoever, is only
nature dirtied and undistanced.--If that is all one wants in
trees,--they might be dead all the year round.

* * * * *

_25th May_ (1879).

This is a most wonderful stone that Dr. Kendall has found--at least to
_me_. I have never seen anything quite like it, the arborescent forms
of the central thread of iron being hardly ever assumed by an ore of
so much metallic luster. I think it would be very desirable to cut it,
so as to get a perfectly smooth surface to show the arborescent forms;
if Dr. Kendall would like to have it done, I can easily send it up to
London with my own next parcel.

I want very much to know exactly where it was found; might I come and
ask about it on Dr. Kendall's next visit to you? I could be there
waiting for him any day.

What lovely pictures you would have made in the old butterfly times,
of opal and felspar! What lost creatures we all are, we nice ones! The
Alps and clouds that _I_ could have done, if I had been shown how.

* * * * *

_27th June_ (1879).

Everybody's gone! and I have all the new potatoes, and all the
asparagus, and all the oranges and everything, and my Susie too, all
to myself.

I wrote in my diary this morning that really on the whole I never felt
better in my life. Mouth, eyes, head, feet, and fingers all fairly in
trim; older than they were, yes, but if the head and heart grow wiser,
they won't want feet or fingers some day.

And I'll come to be cheered and scolded myself the moment I've got
things a little to rights here. I think imps get into the shelves and
drawers, if they're kept long locked, and must be caught like mice.
The boys have been very good, and left everything untouched; but the
imps; and to hear people say there aren't any! How happy you and I
should always be if it weren't for them!

How gay you were and how you cheered me up after the da