"Daddy Darwin." No; it will not make me overwork. I think, I
hope, nothing ever will again. Rather make me doubly careful that I
may not lose the gift you help me to believe I have. I have had very
kind letters about it, and Mrs. L. sent me a sweet little girl dressed
in pink--a bit of Worcester China!--as "Phoebe Shaw."...

Aunt M. sent "Daddy Darwin" to T. Kingdon (he is now Suffragan Bishop
to Bishop Medley), and she sent us his letter. I will copy what he
says: "'Daddy Darwin' is very charming--directly I read it I took it
off to the Bishop--and he read it and cried over it with joy, and then
read it again, and it has gone round Fredericton by this time. The
story is beautifully told, and the picture is quite what it should be.
When I look at the picture I think nothing could beat it, and then
when I read the story I think the story is best--till I look again at
the picture, and I can only say that _together_ I don't think they
could be beaten at all in their line. I have enjoyed them much. There
is such a wonderful fragrance of the Old Country about them."

I thought you would like to realize the picture of our own dear old
Bishop crying with joy over it! What a young heart! tenderer than many
in their teens; and what unfailing affection and sympathy....

January 17, 1882.

* * * * *

Mrs. O'M. is delighted with "Daddy Darwin." I had a most curious
letter about it from Mrs. S., a very clever one and very flattering!
F.S. too wrote to D., and said things almost exactly similar. It seems
odd that people should express such a sense of "purity" with the "wit
and wisdom" of one's writing! It seems such an odd reflection on the
tone of other people's writings!!! But the minor writers of the
"Fleshly school" are perhaps producing a reaction! Though it's
_marvellous_ what people will read, and think "so clever!" Some novels
lately--_Sophy_ and _Mehalah_, deeply recommended to me, have made me
aghast. I'm not very young, nor I think very priggish; but I do
decline to look at life and its complexities solely and entirely from
a point of view that (bar Christian names and the English language)
would do equally well for a pig or a monkey. If I _am_ no more than a
Pig, I'm a fairly "learned" pig, and will back myself to get some
small piggish pleasures out of this mortal stye, before I go to the
Butcher!! But--IF--I am something very different, and very much
higher, I won't ignore my bir