When I look back to the notes in our journals of that date I see how
much has been overcome.
Perhaps we listened more than was strictly wise to the revelations
of Amos Bell, when he attended Emily and me on our expeditions with
the donkey. Though living over the border of Hillside, he had a
family of relations at Earlscombe, and for a time lodged with his
grandmother there. When his shyness and lumpishness gave way, he
proved so bright that Emily undertook to carry on his education. He
soon had a wonderful eye for a wild flower, and would climb after it
with the utmost agility; and when once his tongue was loosed, he
became almost too communicative, and made us acquainted with the
opinions of 'they Earlscoom folk' with a freedom not to be found in
an elder or a native.
Moreover, he was the brightest light of the Sunday school which Mr.
Henderson opened at once--for want of a more fitting place--in the
disused north transept of the church. It was an uncouth, ill-clad
crew which assembled on those dilapidated paving tiles. Their own
grandchildren look almost as far removed from them in dress and
civilisation as did my sister in her white worked cambric dress,
silk scarf, huge Tuscan bonnet, and the little curls beyond the lace
quilling round her bright face, far rosier than ever it had been in
town. And what would the present generation say to the odd little
contrivances in the way of cotton sun-bonnets, check pinafores, list
tippets, and print capes, and other wonderful manufactures from the
rag-bag, which were then grand prizes and stimulants?
Previous knowledge or intelligence scarcely existed, and then was
not due to Dame Dearlove's tuition.
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