ister
was describing mountains she said: "I don't want to know how high they
are, how many hours it takes to climb them, and what they are made of. I
want you to tell me if they make you afraid, if they make you happy,
or," drawing herself up, "if they give you a kind of a proud feeling."

In the April before this tenth birthday she had attempted to express in
verse her feeling as to the light; and on this day three sonnets were
addressed to her by Dr. Kynaston.

What little girl would not be proud of such homage from a "High Master
of St. Paul's," and so dear a friend?

The sonnets appear in _Miscellaneous Poetry_, by Rev. Herbert Kynaston,
M.A.,[3] and two of them are here given:--

TO BESSIE ON HER BIRTHDAY.

And art thou ten years old? one half the time
Is spent--oh say, thou heavenly-gifted child,
How hast thou, then, those weary years beguiled--
That fills thy budding years to woman's prime.
Thou stand'st midway, as on a height sublime,
Sweet record here, sweet promise there as mild
Of childish days, of girlhood undefiled,
To lure thee on; heaven help thee now to climb
With fairest hope, as erst, the onward part
Of life's sad upland course that still is thine!
Had I one wish, fresh gathered from the heart,
To hang with votive sweets at friendship's shrine,
I'd pray--and yet, methinks, if thou wert mine,
I would not have thee other than thou art.

THE SAME SUBJECT.

Forgive the thought, but I have learnt to love
What others deem privation; I have seen
How more than recompensed thy loss has been,
Dear gentle child! by Him who from above
Guides thy dark steps; and I have yearned to prove
The blessed influence, the joy serene,
The store of heavenly peace, that thou dost glean
From angels' steps, unseen, who round thee move.
Yea, I have owed thee much; thou art a thing
For sharpest grief to gather round, and grow
To mellowness; where sorrow loves to cling,
And tune to gospel strains the tears that flow
In harshest discord, sullen murmuring,
That will not learn the blessedness of woe.

In this same year, 1836, Bessie took her first long journey away from
home. Her father and mother had arranged to pay visits to some old
friends, and they took with them the two eldest girls, Mary and Bessie.
They stayed with the Bishop of Linco