18 Turnaside Cottage.

and yet, through his overflowing fun and never-fail-
ing good-humour, he was a favourite with everybody.
It was lucky for me that I had such a protector.
Not only did he help me in driving Monna until I
had gained boldness enough to manage her alone,
but when the other boys found me out and tried to
make me join their games, Tommy would not let
them bully me, but led them off to some other
sport when he saw that I really disliked their rough
play. Leap-frog and hockey had no charms for me;
being the weakest, I was sure to get hustled and
knocked about. So I was well pleased when they
gave me up as “too dull for aught,” and I was left
to my quiet playfellows, the rocks and bushes, and,
above all, a little white quartz pebble, Bobby by
name, whose adventures, were I to write them,
would, I think, fill a much larger book than mine
ever will.

I cannot remember that I thought much, at that
period, about anything except the affairs of daily
life that went on around me. I never heard any
conversation except on those subjects, between my
father and Nance, or between Nance and her grand-
daughter. Books were of course nothing to me,
who could not read ; and I had no wish to learn, for
school, the place where everybody was taught,
seemed to me, from Tommy’s descriptions, to be a