e of the wettest I have ever seen, I have
been regaled, not with garlands of May flowers, but with the legal
pleasures of the season. I have heard nothing but giving notices to
quit, taking possession, ejectments, flittings, etc. What do you
think of a tenant who took one of the nice new houses in this town,
and left it with every lock torn off the doors, and with a large
stone, such as John Langan[8] could not lift, driven actually
through the boarded floor of the parlor? The brute, however, is
rich; and if he does not die of whiskey before the law can get its
hand into his pocket, he will pay for this waste.

No wonder she once sighs, "I wish I had time to write some more _Early
Lessons_, or to do half the things I wish to do." With the calls on her
time, domestic, philanthropic and social, it is only amazing that she
wrote so much. Her method of working is described by herself in some
detail. From its very nature it could not fail to induce a certain
stiffness and over-anxious finish. She says:--

Whenever I thought of writing anything I always told my father my
first rough plans; and always, with the instinct of a good critic,
he used to fix immediately upon that which would best answer the
purpose. "Sketch that, and show it to me." The words, from the
experience of his sagacity, never failed to inspire me with hope of
success. It was then sketched. Sometimes, when I was fond of a
particular part, I used to dilate on it in the sketch; but to this
he always objected. "I don't want any of your painting--none of
your drapery! I can imagine all that. Let me see the bare
skeleton."

It seemed to me sometimes impossible that he could understand the
very slight sketches I made; when, before I was conscious that I
had expressed this doubt in my countenance, he always saw it.

"Now, my dear little daughter, I know, does not believe that I
understand her." Then he would, in his own words, fill up my
sketch, paint the description, or represent the character intended,
with such life, that I was quite convinced he not only seized the
ideas, but that he saw with the prophetic eye of taste the utmost
that could be made of them. After a sketch had his approbation, he
would not see the filling up till it had been worked upon for a
week or fortnight, or till the first thirty or forty