 into no
ungentle mood.
    »Have you learned any hymns this week, Polly?«
    »I have learned a very pretty one, four verses long. Shall I say it?«
    »Speak nicely, then: don't be in a hurry.«
    The hymn being rehearsed, or rather half-chanted, in a little singing voice,
Graham would take exceptions at the manner, and proceed to give a lesson in
recitation. She was quick in learning, apt in imitating; and, besides, her
pleasure was to please Graham: she proved a ready scholar. To the hymn would
succeed some reading - perhaps a chapter in the Bible; correction was seldom
required here, for the child could read any simple narrative chapter very well;
and, when the subject was such as she could understand and take an interest in,
her expression and emphasis were something remarkable. Joseph cast into the pit;
the calling of Samuel; Daniel in the lions' den; - these were favourite
passages: of the first especially she seemed perfectly to feel the pathos.
    »Poor Jacob!« she would sometimes say, with quivering lips. »How he loved
his son Joseph! As much,« she once added - »as much, Graham, as I love you: if
you were to die« (and she re-opened the book, sought the verse, and read), »I
should refuse to be comforted, and go down into the grave to you mourning.«
    With these words she gathered Graham in her little arms, drawing his
long-tressed head towards her. The action, I remember, struck me as strangely
rash; exciting the feeling one might experience on seeing an animal dangerous by
nature, and but half-tamed by art, too heedlessly fondled. Not that I feared
Graham would hurt, or very roughly check her; but I thought she ran risk of
incurring such a careless, impatient repulse, as would be worse almost to her
than a blow. On the whole, however, these demonstrations were borne passively:
sometimes even a sort of complacent wonder at her earnest partiality would smile
not unkindly in his eyes. Once he said: -
    »You like me almost as well as if you were my little sister, Polly.«
    »Oh! I do like you,« said she; »I do like you very much.«
 
I was not long allowed the amusement of this study of character. She had
scarcely been at Bretton two months, when a letter came from Mr. Home,
signifying that he was now settled amongst
