saw, so as to make nurse regret her severity on the vision of Lucy.



CHAPTER II--SCHOOLROOM DAYS



'In the loom of life-cloth pleasure,
Ere our childish days be told,
With the warp and woof enwoven,
Glitters like a thread of gold.'

JEAN INGELOW.

Looking back, I think my mother was the leading spirit in our
household, though she never for a moment suspected it. Indeed, the
chess queen must be the most active on the home board, and one of
the objects of her life was to give her husband a restful evening
when he came home to the six o'clock dinner. She also had to make
both ends meet on an income which would seem starvation at the
present day; but she was strong, spirited, and managing, and equal
to all her tasks till the long attendance upon me, and the
consequent illness, forced her to spare herself--a little--a very
little.

Previously she had been our only teacher, except that my father read
a chapter of the Bible with us every morning before breakfast, and
heard the Catechism on a Sunday. For we could all read long before
young gentlefolks nowadays can say their letters. It was well for