uabbling and rebellion; but such unworthy skepticism is
rebuked by my faithful Memory, who reminds me of the filial respect
combined with girlish gayety and absence of all self-consciousness which
forbade the idea for a moment that these young lives were regulated by
harsh or compulsory discipline Still it was discipline, there could be
no doubt of that, and of the most healthy order, which gave such a charm
to Sir Thomas's daughters. Perhaps they had reaped in their family
circle all and more than all the benefits which school-training and
contact with numbers are capable of affording, without out the loss of
home-influences; for I overheard their mother (rather a loud-voiced
woman, by the way) telling somebody,--the clergyman's wife, I
suspect,--that she had already married off two similar trios of
daughters, and that these were the younger children. Blessings on the
children who belong to so well filled a quiver, if they all attain to
such a degree of sweetness and decorum as to impress the most casual
observer, and one of their own sex, too, with such lasting recollections
of their maiden loveliness! I saw them under various circumstances, both
flattering and the reverse: saw them, when, with their own servants in
attendance, and the advantages of social position, they might not
unnaturally have laid claim to precedence; saw them and their
drawing-materials shuffled hastily from the steamer's cabin one rainy
day, to make way for the dinner-cloth, in accordance with steamboat
regulations, and in spite of their mild expostulations; saw one of them,
at least, subjected to the presumptuous advances of a chance admirer:
but I never saw any instance in which their behavior was not marked by
modesty and good-nature, accompanied by a quiet dignity and self-respect
which repelled intrusion so effectually as to justify their experienced
mother in giving them the freedom of steamboats, rocks, caves, and
crowds, to a degree which is seldom exceeded by the boasted independence
of American girls.

But Memory reminds me that I did not see all this during that noonday
hour when the Pioneer was bearing down upon Staffa, and that long before
these English girls had established themselves so high in my good
opinion we had skirted nearly the whole of the eastern shore of the
island. The steamer is now gradually slackening her speed, preparatory
to coming to a full stop not far from the southeastern extremity, and we
realize that the fi