that there ever was a family more tenderly bound to each other. Maria
read the newspapers, and reported intelligence to her younger sisters
which it is wonderful they could take an interest in. But I suspect that
they had no "children's books," and that their eager minds "browzed
undisturbed among the wholesome pasturage of English literature," as
Charles Lamb expresses it. The servants of the household appear to have
been much impressed with the little Brontes' extraordinary cleverness. In
a letter which I had from him on this subject, their father writes:--"The
servants often said that they had never seen such a clever little child"
(as Charlotte), "and that they were obliged to be on their guard as to
what they said and did before her. Yet she and the servants always lived
on good terms with each other."

These servants are yet alive; elderly women residing in Bradford. They
retain a faithful and fond recollection of Charlotte, and speak of her
unvarying kindness from the "time when she was ever such a little child!"
when she would not rest till she had got the old disused cradle sent from
the parsonage to the house where the parents of one of them lived, to
serve for a little infant sister. They tell of one long series of kind
and thoughtful actions from this early period to the last weeks of
Charlotte Bronte's life; and, though she had left her place many years
ago, one of these former servants went over from Bradford to Haworth on
purpose to see Mr. Bronte, and offer him her true sympathy, when his last
child died. I may add a little anecdote as a testimony to the admirable
character of the likeness of Miss Bronte prefixed to this volume. A
gentleman who had kindly interested himself in the preparation of this
memoir took the first volume, shortly after the publication, to the house
of this old servant, in order to show her the portrait. The moment she
caught a glimpse of the frontispiece, "There she is," in a minute she
exclaimed. "Come, John, look!" (to her husband); and her daughter was