ear. My father's face turned deadly pale. He clutched at the table to
support himself, then staggered from the room. My mother was dying!

It was some days afterwards, I do not know exactly how long, that my
father took me by the hand and led me upstairs into the big room which
had been my mother's bedroom. There she lay, dead in her coffin, with
flowers in her hand. Along the wall of the room were arranged three
little white beds, and on each of the beds lay one of my brothers. They
all looked as though they were asleep, and they all had flowers in their
hands. My father told me to kiss them, because I should not see them any
more, and I did so, though I was very frightened. I did not know why.
Then he took me in his arms and kissed me.

"The Lord hath given," he said, "and the Lord hath taken away; blessed
be the name of the Lord."

I cried very much, and he took me downstairs, and after that I have only
a confused memory of men dressed in black carrying heavy burdens towards
the grey churchyard!

Next comes a vision of a great ship and wide tossing waters. My father
could no longer bear to live in England after the loss that had fallen
on him, and made up his mind to emigrate to South Africa. We must have
been poor at the time--indeed, I believe that a large portion of
our income went from my father on my mother's death. At any rate we
travelled with the steerage passengers, and the intense discomfort of
the journey with the rough ways of our fellow emigrants still remain
upon my mind. At last it came to an end, and we reached Africa, which I
was not to leave again for many, many years.