at all
great women must have had great fathers."

Gertrude who had made a special study of Shakespeare and his works did
much of the talking. She said, "All that is definitely known of the life
of the great poet can be put on half a page. It is thought that William
was the son of a well-to-do farmer who lost his property. William, not
above work, assisted his father as butcher, then taught school, and later
served as a lawyer's clerk. When he was eighteen, like most young people,
he fell in love."

Saying this, Gertrude led to the street, and the party drove to Shottery,
a pretty village a mile away, where is Ann Hathaway's thatched cottage.
"Here the beardless William often came," said Gertrude, "and told his
love to the English maiden. Ann Hathaway was older than William, she was
twenty-six, but they were married, and had three children.

"When Shakespeare was twenty-five he was part owner of the Blackfriar's
Theatre in London. There he spent his literary life, and there he was
actor, dramatist, and manager. He became rich and returned occasionally
to Stratford where he bought lands and built houses.

"If we can trust statues and paintings and writers, William Shakespeare
had a kingly physique, light hazel eyes and auburn hair."

"What about his death?" inquired Colonel Harris.

"Of his death," said Gertrude, "we know little, save that the Vicar of
Stratford wrote that Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Johnson had a merry
meeting, possibly drank too much, and that Shakespeare died of a fever
then contracted, on the anniversary of his birth, when he was fifty-two
years old."

"And where was he buried?" inquired Lucille.

"In the Stratford church," answered Gertrude, and the carriages were
driven up an avenue of arching lime trees. The old church, with its tall
and graceful spire, reflected in the waters of the Avon, is a restful
place for the body that contains the mightiest voice in literature. Near
by also lie buried his wife and their children. A plain slab in the floor
covers his remains.

Recently a new grave was dug near Shakespeare's and the intervening wall
fell in. A workman ventured to hold a lighted taper in death's chamber,
which revealed that the ashes of the immortal Shakespeare could be held
in the palm of the hand. The Harris party drove back to Leamington to
spend the night.

CHAPTER XVI

A SEARCH FOR IDEAS

Later on the Harrises spent considerable time in London staying at the
Gran