A
more devoted lover of "beasts" can hardly exist. The household pets were
about her to the end; and she only laughed when the dogs stole the bread
and butter from her helpless hands.
Her long illness, perhaps, did less to teach us to do without her, than
long illnesses commonly do; because her sick-room was so little like a
sick-room, and her interests never narrowed to the fretful circle of
mere invalid fears and fancies. The strong sense of humour, which never
left her, helped her through many a petty annoyance; and to the last she
kept one of her most striking qualities, so well described by Trench--
---- "a child's pure delight in little things."
Whatever interest this little record of some of my mother's tastes and
acquirements may have for her young readers, its value must be in her
example.
Whatever genius she may have had, her industry was far more remarkable.
The pen of a ready writer is not grasped by all fingers, and gifts are
gifts, not earnings. But to cultivate the faculties God has
given us to His glory, to lose petty cares, ignoble pleasures, and small
grievances, in the joy of studying His great works, to be good to His
creatures, to be truthful beyond fear or flattery, to be pure of heart
and tongue far beyond the common, to keep up an honest, zealous war with
wickedness, and never to lose heart or hope for wicked men--these things
are within the power as well as the ambition of us all.
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