thoroughly_ gentlemanlike air, almost
Grandisonian, "Oh! oh! as good as new to me. Quite as good as new."
They were like two Easterns! For not to be outdone in courtesy, Rex
warned him not to put too large charges of powder for fear the barrel
should burst--being so old. A caution which I believe to be totally
unnecessary, and a mere hyperbole of depreciation--as Peter seemed
perfectly to understand! He told me it was "The first present I ever
receive from a gentleman. Well--well--I never forget it, the longest
day I live." The graceful candour with which he said, "I am very
thankful to you," was quite pretty.

TO MRS. GATTY.

[_Aldershot._] February 23, 1870.

MY DARLING MOTHER,

I was by no means sensible of your iniquities in not acknowledging my
poor Neck,[35] for I had entirely forgotten his very existence! Only I
was thinking it was a long time since I heard from you--and hoping you
were not ill. I am _very_ glad you like the Legend--I was doubtful, and
rather anxious to hear till I forgot all about it. The "Necks" are
Scandinavian in locality, and that desire for immortal life which is
their distinguishing characteristic is very touching. There is one
lovely little (real) Legend in Keightley. The bairns of a Pastor play
with a Neck one day, and falling into disputes they taunt him that he
will never be saved--on which he flings away his harp and weeps
bitterly. When the boys tell their father he reproves them for their
want of charity, and sends them back to unsay what they had said. So
they run back and say, "Dear Neck, do not grieve so; for our father says
that your Redeemer liveth also," on which the Neck was filled with joy,
and sat on a wave and played till the sun went down. He appeared like a
boy with long fair hair and a red cap. They also appear in the form of a
little old man wringing out his beard into the water. I ventured to give
my Neck both shapes according to his age. All the rest is _de
moi-meme_....

[Footnote 35: The Neck in "Old-fashioned Fairy Tales."]

[_Aldershot._] March 22, 1870.

MY DARLING MOTHER,

I am so very much pleased that you think better of Benjy[36] now. As I
have plenty of time, I mean to go through it, and soften Benjy down a
bit. He is an awful boy, and I think I can make him less repulsive.
The fact is the story was written _in fragments_, and I was anxious to
show that it was not a little boyish roughness that I meant to make a
fuss and "point a moral" a