smoothing out
the inscription, sent the money to the Lancashire Famine Fund.

His own government gave him a step in military rank, and it was as
'Colonel Gordon' that he returned home early in 1865.

* * * * *

The next six years of his life Gordon passed at home, and these years
were, he said, the happiest he had ever spent. He first visited his
family, who were living at Southampton, and to them he was ready to talk
of all that he had seen and done since they last parted. Invitations
poured in upon him from all sides, but he hated being fussed over, and
invariably lost his temper at any attempt to show him off. He was so
angry at a minister who borrowed from Mrs. Gordon his private journal of
the Taeping rebellion, and then sent to have it printed for the other
members of the Cabinet to read, that he rushed straight to the printers
and insisted that the type should at once be destroyed. It was a very
great loss to the world; but the minister had no business to act as he
did without Gordon's permission, and had only himself to thank for what
happened.

Delightful though it was to be back again, Gordon soon got tired of
being idle, so he was given an appointment to superintend the erection
of forts at Gravesend. His leisure hours he devoted to helping the
people round him, especially little ragged boys, whose only playground
and schoolroom were the streets or the riverside. And it is curious that
he, who amongst strangers of his own class was shy and abrupt, and often
tactless, was quite at his ease with these little fellows, generally as
suspicious as they are acute. About himself and his own comfort he never
thought, and if he was working would eat, when it was necessary and he
remembered to do so, food which he had ready in a drawer of his table.
But as he had carefully watched over the welfare of his troops in China,
so in Gravesend he looked after that of his boys. He took into his own
house as many as there was room for, and clothed and fed them, while in
the evenings he taught them geography, and told them stories from
English history and the Bible, and when he considered they had done
lessons long enough he played games with them. By-and-by more boys came
in from the outside and joined his classes. It did not matter to him how
many they were, they were all welcome, and he gave them, as far as the
time allowed, a training which was religious as well as practical,
hoping that so