tances, who, having no regular occupation, had chosen for himself
this quiet retreat, and devoted all his time and care to the education
of his family, and the ordinary duties of a country gentleman.

Walter was the eldest child, a graceful, active, bright-eyed boy. Up to
this time--and he was now thirteen years old--he had had no other
teaching but that of his father, and of a tutor, who for the last year
had lived in the house. His education, therefore, differed considerably
from that of many boys of his own age, and the amount of book knowledge
which he had acquired was small as yet; but he was full of that
intelligent interest in things most worth knowing, which is the best and
surest guarantee for future progress.

Let me pause for a moment to relate how a refined and simple-hearted
gentleman had hitherto brought up his young boys. I do not pronounce
whether the method was right or wrong; I only describe it as it was, and
its success or failure must be inferred from the following pages.

The positive teaching of the young Evsons did not begin too early. Till
they were ten or twelve years old nearly all they did know had come to
them either intuitively or without any conscious labour. They were
allowed almost to live in the open air, and nature was their wise and
tender teacher. Some object was invented, if possible, for every walk.
Now it was to find the shy recesses of the wood where the wild
strawberries were thickest, or where the white violets and the rarest
orchis flowers were hid; or to climb along the rocky sides of the glen
to seek the best spot for a rustic meal, and find mossy stones and
flower-banks for seats and tables near some waterfall or pool.

When they were a little older their father would amuse and encourage
them until they had toiled up even to the very summit of all the nearest
hills, and there they would catch the fresh breeze which blew from the
far-off sea, or gaze wonderingly at the summer lightning flashing behind
the chain of hills, or watch, with many playful fancies, the long
gorgeous conflagration of the summer sunset. And in such excursions
their father or mother would teach them without seeming to teach them,
until they were thoroughly familiar with the names and properties of all
the commonest plants, and eagerly interested to secure for their little
collections, or to plant in their gardens, the different varieties of
all the wild flowers that were found about their home.