It may be imagined that in a place so remote culture would be
missing--at least the love and knowledge of books which we call
culture; but when I say the place was Scotch this delusion is disposed
of. The children had had to walk that long seven miles a day and back
again, in all weathers, to obtain an education. They had grown up to
value it, and were the better mentally as well as physically for their
thousands of miles of tramping. There were books in the little
household, and good books too. As often as not when we sat round the
red peats of an evening, we discussed Browning or Herbert Spencer.
That year it happened that a party of students from Edinburgh
University were camping in the neighbourhood, and they often joined us
round the farm fire of an evening. They talked about books and
opinions and men with all the omniscience of youth; but the two girls
of the household held their own with them. Ah, Kate M'Intyre, you did
me much friendly service in tying flies for me that summer, and
teaching me something of the craft of fishing; but you did a far more
enduring service in helping me to see that one does not need towns and
libraries to grow the fine flower of wholesome cultured womanhood.
Here, beside that lake, whose lady has been made immortal by the hand
of Scott, you showed me that God grows ladies still who wear homespun
and live in cottages, and are all the wiser and sweeter for the bright
seclusion of their lives. In a town, you and your family, endowed only
with such means as you found sufficient for existence, would have been
despondent drudges, you yourself perhaps working in a sewing-room in
bad air and for poor pay, but here you were the free-holders of nature.
Never did I see you go about your simple duties--always with a bright
look and a snatch of song--but I said to myself, 'She hath chosen the
better part, which shall not be taken away from her'; and I say it
still, though I am well aware that the smart young women of London
shops and restaurants will not believe me. I dare say they would count