age for practicality, and laughed all poetry to
scorn. Neither she nor we had any idea but that our opinions were the
opinions of all the _sensible_ people in the world, and we used to
astonish each other at every sentence . . . Charlotte, at school, had no
plan of life beyond what circumstances made for her. She knew that she
must provide for herself, and chose her trade; at least chose to begin it
once. Her idea of self-improvement ruled her even at school. It was to
cultivate her tastes. She always said there was enough of hard
practicality and _useful_ knowledge forced on us by necessity, and that
the thing most needed was to soften and refine our minds. She picked up
every scrap of information concerning painting, sculpture, poetry, music,
&c., as if it were gold."

What I have heard of her school days from other sources, confirms the
accuracy of the details in this remarkable letter. She was an
indefatigable student: constantly reading and learning; with a strong
conviction of the necessity and value of education, very unusual in a
girl of fifteen. She never lost a moment of time, and seemed almost to
grudge the necessary leisure for relaxation and play-hours, which might
be partly accounted for by the awkwardness in all games occasioned by her
shortness of sight. Yet, in spite of these unsociable habits, she was a
great favourite with her school-fellows. She was always ready to try and
do what they wished, though not sorry when they called her awkward, and
left her out of their sports. Then, at night, she was an invaluable
story-teller, frightening them almost out of their wits as they lay in
bed. On one occasion the effect was such that she was led to scream out
aloud, and Miss W---, coming up stairs, found that one of the listeners
had been seized with violent palpitations, in consequence of the
excitement produced by Charlotte's story.

Her indefatigable craving for knowledge tempted Miss W--- on into setting
her longer and longer tasks of reading for examination; and towards the
end of the year and a half that she remained as a pupil at Roe Head, she
received her first bad mark for an imperfect lesson. She had had a great
quantity of Blair's "Lectures on Belles Lettres" to read; and she could
not answer some of the questions upon it; Charlotte Bronte had a bad
mark. Miss W--- was sorry, and regretted that she had set Charlotte so
long a task. Charlotte cried bitterly. But her school-fellows we