be recognised by the
description. Then we taught in the Sunday-school, for Auntie would tell
us that it was useless for us to learn if we did not try to help those
who had no one to teach them. The Sunday-school lessons had to be
carefully prepared on the Saturday, for we were always taught that work
given to the poor should be work that cost something to the giver. This
principle, regarded by her as an illustration of the text, "Shall I give
unto the Lord my God that which has cost me nothing?" ran through all her
precept and her practice. When in some public distress we children went
to her crying, and asking whether we could not help the little children
who were starving, her prompt reply was: "What will you give up for
them?" And then she said that if we liked to give up the use of sugar, we
might thus each save 6d. a week to give away. I doubt if a healthier
lesson can be given to children than that of personal self-denial for the
good of others.

Daily, when our lessons were over, we had plenty of fun; long walks and
rides, rides on a lively pony, who found small children most amusing, and
on which the coachman taught us to stick firmly, whatever his
eccentricities of the moment; delightful all-day picnics in the lovely
country round Charmouth, Auntie our merriest playfellow. Never was a
healthier home, physically and mentally, made for young things than in
that quiet village. And then the delight of the holidays! The pride of my
mother at the good report of her darling's progress, and the renewal of
acquaintance with every nook and corner in the dear old house and garden.

III.

The strong and intense Evangelicalism of Miss Marryat colored the whole
of my early religious thought. I was naturally enthusiastic and fanciful,
and was apt to throw myself strongly into the current of the emotional
life around me, and hence I easily reflected the stern and narrow creed
which ruled over my daily life. It was to me a matter of the most intense
regret that Christians did not go about as in the "Pilgrim's Progress",
armed to do battle with Apollyon and Giant Despair, or fight through a
whole long day against thronging foes, until night brought victory and
release. It would have been so easy, I used to think, to do tangible
battle of that sort, so much easier than to learn lessons, and keep one's
temper, and mend one's stockings. Quick to learn, my lessons of Bible and
Prayer Book gave me no trouble, and I repeated