16
MEMOIR
rested with her, undertook to teach her himself.—And the copy-book was ruled, and his spectacles were rubbed, and his knife prepared to make the best pen possible; but it would not do; a broad nib and a fine nib, a hard pen and a soft pen, all failed, for in each case it was still a pen. At last he gave the task up in despair; he shook his head mournfully and said, 'No, your dear little fingers are too straight;' gave her a forgiving kiss, told her she was 'a dab at pothooks,' took up his hat, walked out, and never renewed his attempt."
To explain the foregoing allusion to the "imprisonment" of the young brother and playmate on his sister's account, it is necessary to introduce an anecdote, and to quote a remark of his, which, in its application to her, was as strictly true in her maturer years as in her childhood. "It was," he observes, "no easy thing to subdue her will, except through her affections." Hence, possibly, the adoption of a discipline that formed part of the educational system at Trevor-park, of punishing the one when the other deserved it! When either was "in disgrace"—that was the term used—the unoffending party was locked up in a dark closet, and, says Mr. Landon, "this effectually secured obedience and attention." He adds, with his usual recollection of the kindness of his sister—"On these occasions, the nurse, who had no notion of any such discipline, or, indeed, of any at all with either of us, always pushed under the door apples, sweetmeats, or roasted chestnuts; these she invariably saved, when locked up on my account, and gave me when she came out."
Difficult as it may be for grateful remembrance to avoid exaggeration, there is no partiality in the assertion, that even at the age we are speaking of,