e, too, in herbs and simples. The villagers and the
farm labourers would rather any day have her advice upon their ailments
than that of Dr. Jackson of Purbrook, who never mixed a draught under
a silver crown. Over the whole countryside there was no woman more
deservedly respected and more esteemed both by those above her and by
those beneath.

Such were my parents as I remember them in my childhood. As to myself, I
shall let my story explain the growth of my own nature. My brothers and
my sister were all brownfaced, sturdy little country children, with no
very marked traits save a love of mischief controlled by the fear of
their father. These, with Martha the serving-maid, formed our whole
household during those boyish years when the pliant soul of the child
is hardening into the settled character of the man. How these influences
affected me I shall leave for a future sitting, and if I weary you by
recording them, you must remember that I am telling these things rather
for your profit than for your amusement; that it may assist you in your
journey through life to know how another has picked out the path before
you.

Chapter II. Of my going to school and of my coming thence.

With the home influences which I have described, it may be readily
imagined that my young mind turned very much upon the subject of
religion, the more so as my father and mother took different views upon
it. The old Puritan soldier held that the bible alone contained all
things essential to salvation, and that though it might be advisable
that those who were gifted with wisdom or eloquence should expound the
Scriptures to their brethren, it was by no means necessary, but rather
hurtful and degrading, that any organised body of ministers or of
bishops should claim special prerogatives, or take the place of
mediators between the creature and the Creator. For the wealthy
dignitaries of the Church, rolling in their carriages to their
cathedrals, in order to preach the doctrines of their Master, who wore
His sandals out in tramping over the countryside, he professed the most
bitter contempt; nor was he more lenient to those poorer members of the
clergy who winked at the vices of their patrons that they might secure
a seat at their table, and who would sit through a long evening of
profanity rather than bid good-bye to the cheesecakes and the wine
flask. That such men represented religious truth was abhorrent to
his mind, nor would he even give