he
Madonna di Oropa (5).

Three crockery examples of "the Virgin with Child" (6).

One only is shown in the photo. One of these is from Oropa where the
Virgin and Child are both black, see "A Medieval Girl-School" in _The
Humour of Homer_. These holy water holders and Madonnas are some of the
cheap religious knick-knacks which are sold at most Italian Sanctuaries.
We often brought back a few and gave them away to Gogin, Alfred, Clark,
and other friends.

Bag for pennies (7).

Miss Savage's kettle-holder (8).

In Oct. 1884 (see the _Memoir_), about four months before her death, Miss
Savage sent Butler a present of a pair of socks which she had knitted
herself, and she promised to make him some more. Butler gratefully
accepted her gift, but

"As for doing me any more, I flatly forbid it. I believe you don't
like my books, and want to make me say I won't give you any more if
you make me any more socks; and then you will make me some more in
order not to get the books. No, I will let you read my stupid books
in manuscript and help me that way. If you like to make me a kettle-
holder, you may, for I only have one just now, and I like to have two
because I always mislay one; but I won't have people working their
fingers out to knit me stockings."

_Miss Savage to Butler_, 27_th_ _Oct._ 1884: "Here is a kettle-holder.
And I can only say that a man who is equal to the control of two kettle-
holders fills me with awe, and I shall begin to be afraid of you. . . .
The kettle-holder is very clumsy and ugly, but please to remember that I
am not a many-sided genius, and to expect me to excel in kettle-holders
_and_ stockings is unreasonable. I take credit to myself, however, for
affixing a fetter to it, so that you may chain it up if it is too much
disposed to wander. My expectation is that it is too thick for you to
grasp the kettle with, and the kettle will slip out of your hand and
scald you frightfully. I shall be sorry for you but you would have it,
so upon your own head be it."

_Butler to Miss Savage_, 28_th_ _Oct._ 1884: "The kettle-holder is
beautiful; it is like a filleted sole, and I am very fond of filleted
sole. It is not at all too thick, and fits my kettle to perfection."

The subject is developed antiphonally between Miss Savage and Butler
throughout several letters, and near the close comes this note made by
Butler when "editing his remains" at the end of his life:

"I n