The Project Gutenberg eBook of Marjorie Fleming This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Marjorie Fleming a sketch : being the paper entitled "Pet Marjorie, a story of child-life fifty years ago" Author: John Brown Release date: March 26, 2025 [eBook #75718] Language: English Original publication: United States: Ticknor and Fields, 1864 Credits: Mairi, Laura Natal and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARJORIE FLEMING *** MARJORIE FLEMING. A SKETCH. BEING THE PAPER ENTITLED “_PET MARJORIE: A STORY OF CHILD-LIFE FIFTY YEARS AGO_.” BY JOHN BROWN, M. D., AUTHOR OF “RAB AND HIS FRIENDS.” BOSTON: TICKNOR AND FIELDS. 1864. NOTE. THE separate publication of this sketch has been forced upon me by the “somewhat free use” made of it in a second and thereby enlarged edition of the “little book” to which I owe my _introduction_ to Marjorie Fleming,--but nothing more; a “use” so exceedingly “free” as to extend almost to everything with which I had ventured perhaps to encumber the letters and journals of that dear child. To be called “kind and genial” by the individual who devised this edition has, strange as he may think it, altogether failed to console me. Empty praise without the solid pudding is proverbially a thing of naught; but what shall we say of praise the emptiness of which is aggravated, not merely by the absence, but by the actual abstraction, of the pudding? This little act of conveyancing--this “engaging compilation,” as he would have called it--puts me in mind of that pleasant joke in the preface to “Essays by Mr. Goldsmith”: “I would desire in this case, to imitate that fat man whom I have somewhere heard of in a shipwreck, who when the sailors, prest by famine, were taking slices from his body, to satisfy their hunger, insisted with great justice on having the first cut for himself.” I have to thank the proprietors of the _North British Review_ for permitting this reprint. J. B. _To_ MISS FLEMING, TO WHOM I AM INDEBTED FOR ALL ITS MATERIALS, _THIS MEMORIAL_ OF HER DEAR AND UNFORGOTTEN MAIDIE IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED. MARJORIE FLEMING. ONE November afternoon in 1810,--the year in which _Waverley_ was resumed and laid aside again, to be finished off, its last two volumes in three weeks, and made immortal in 1814, and when its author, by the death of Lord Melville, narrowly escaped getting a civil appointment in India,--three men, evidently lawyers, might have been seen escaping like school-boys from the Parliament House, and speeding arm in arm down Bank Street and the Mound, in the teeth of a surly blast of sleet. The three friends sought the _bield_ of the low wall old Edinburgh boys remember well, and sometimes miss now, as they struggle with the stout west wind. The three were curiously unlike each other. One, “a little man of feeble make, who would be unhappy if his pony got beyond a foot pace,” slight, with “small, elegant features, hectic cheek, and soft hazel eyes, the index of the quick, sensitive spirit within, as if he had the warm heart of a woman, her genuine enthusiasm, and some of her weaknesses.” Another, as unlike a woman as a man can be; homely, almost common, in look and figure; his hat and his coat, and indeed his entire covering, worn to the quick, but all of the best material; what redeemed him from vulgarity and meanness were his eyes, deep set, heavily thatched, keen, hungry, shrewd, with a slumbering glow far in, as if they could be dangerous; a man to care nothing for at first glance, but, somehow, to give a second and not-forgetting look at. The third was the biggest of the three, and though lame, nimble, and all rough and alive with power; had you met him anywhere else, you would say he was a Liddesdale store-farmer, come of gentle blood; “a stout, blunt carle,” as he says of himself, with the swing and stride and the eye of a man of the hills,--a large, sunny, out-of-door air all about him. On his broad and somewhat stooping shoulders was set that head which, with Shakespeare’s and Bonaparte’s, is the best known in all the world. He was in high spirits, keeping his companions and himself in roars of laughter, and every now and then seizing them, and stopping, that they might take their fill of the fun; there they stood shaking with laughter, “not an inch of their body free” from its grip. At George Street they parted, one to Rose Court, behind St. Andrew’s Church, one to Albany Street, the other, our big and limping friend, to Castle Street. We need hardly give their names. The first was William Erskine, afterwards Lord Kinnedder, chased out of the world by a calumny, killed by its foul breath,-- “And at the touch of wrong, without a strife, Slipped in a moment out of life.” There is nothing in literature more beautiful or more pathetic than Scott’s love and sorrow for this friend of his youth. The second was William Clerk,--the _Darsie Latimer_ of _Redgauntlet_; “a man,” as Scott says, “of the most acute intellects and powerful apprehension,” but of more powerful indolence, so as to leave the world with little more than the report of what he might have been,--a humorist as genuine, though not quite so savagely Swiftian as his brother Lord Eldin, neither of whom had much of that commonest and best of all the humors, called good. The third we all know. What has he not done for every one of us? Who else ever, except Shakespeare, so diverted mankind, entertained and entertains a world so liberally, so wholesomely? We are fain to say, not even Shakespeare, for his is something deeper than diversion, something higher than pleasure, and yet who would care to split this hair? Had any one watched him closely before and after the parting, what a change he would see! The bright, broad laugh, the shrewd, jovial word, the man of the Parliament House and of the world, and, next step, moody, the light of his eye withdrawn, as if seeing things that were invisible; his shut mouth, like a child’s, so impressionable, so innocent, so sad: he was now all within, as before he was all without; hence his brooding look. As the snow blattered in his face, he muttered, “How it raves and drifts! On-ding o’ snaw--ay, that’s the word--on-ding--.” He was now at his own door, “Castle Street, No. 39.” He opened the door, and went straight to his den; that wondrous workshop, where, in one year, 1823, when he was fifty-two, he wrote _Peveril of the Peak_, _Quentin Durward_, and _St. Ronan’s Well_, besides much else. We once took the foremost of our novelists, the greatest, we would say, since Scott, into this room, and could not but mark the solemnizing effect of sitting where the great magician sat so often and so long, and looking out upon that little shabby bit of sky, and that back green where faithful Camp lies.[1] He sat down in his large, green morocco elbow-chair, drew himself close to his table, and glowered and gloomed at his writing apparatus, “a very handsome old box, richly carved, lined with crimson velvet, and containing ink-bottles, taper-stand, etc., in silver, the whole in such order that it might have come from the silversmith’s window half an hour before.” He took out his paper, then, starting up angrily, said, “‘Go spin, you jade, go spin.’ No, d-- it, it won’t do:-- ‘My spinnin’-wheel is auld and stiff; The rock o ’t wunna stand, sir; To keep the temper-pin in tiff Employs ower aft my hand, sir.’ I am off the fang.[2] I can make nothing of _Waverley_ to-day; I’ll awa’ to Marjorie. Come wi’ me, Maida, you thief.” The great creature rose slowly, and the pair were off, Scott taking a _maud_ (a plaid) with him. “White as a frosted plum-cake, by jingo!” said he, when he got to the street. Maida gambolled and whisked among the snow; and his master strode across to Young Street, and through it to 1 North Charlotte Street, to the house of his dear friend, Mrs. William Keith of Corstorphine Hill, niece of Mrs. Keith of Ravelston, of whom he said at her death, eight years after, “Much tradition, and that of the best, has died with this excellent old lady, one of the few persons whose spirits and _cleanliness_ and freshness of mind and body made old age lovely and desirable.” Sir Walter was in that house almost every day, and had a key, so in he and the hound went, shaking themselves in the lobby. “Marjorie! Marjorie!” shouted her friend, “where are ye, my bonnie wee croodlin doo?” In a moment a bright, eager child of seven was in his arms, and he was kissing her all over. Out came Mrs. Keith. “Come yer ways in, Wattie.” “No, not now. I am going to take Marjorie wi’ me, and you may come to your tea in Duncan Roy’s sedan, and bring the bairn home in your lap.” “Tak’ Marjorie, and it _on-ding o’ snaw_!” said Mrs. Keith. He said to himself, “On-ding--that’s odd--that is the very word.” “Hoot, awa! look here,” and he displayed the corner of his plaid, made to hold lambs,--the true shepherd’s plaid, consisting of two breadths sewed together, and uncut at one end, making a poke or _cul de sac_. “Tak’ yer lamb,” said she, laughing at the contrivance; and so the Pet was first well happit up, and then put, laughing silently, into the plaid neuk, and the shepherd strode off with his lamb,--Maida gambolling through the snow, and running races in her mirth. Didn’t he face “the angry airt,” and make her bield his bosom, and into his own room with her, and lock the door, and out with the warm, rosy, little wifie, who took it all with great composure! There the two remained for three or more hours, making the house ring with their laughter; you can fancy the big man’s and Maidie’s laugh. Having made the fire cheery, he set her down in his ample chair, and, standing sheepishly before her, began to say his lesson, which happened to be--“Ziccotty, diccotty, dock, the mouse ran up the clock, the clock struck wan, down the mouse ran, ziccotty, diccotty, dock.” This done repeatedly till she was pleased, she gave him his new lesson, gravely and slowly, timing it upon her small fingers,--he saying it after her,-- “Wonery, twoery, tickery, seven; Alibi, crackaby, ten, and eleven; Pin, pan, musky, dan; Tweedle-um, twoddle-um, Twenty-wan; eerie, orie, ourie, You, are, out.” He pretended to great difficulty, and she rebuked him with most comical gravity, treating him as a child. He used to say that when he came to Alibi Crackaby he broke down, and pin-Pan, Musky-dan, Tweedle-um, Twoddle-um made him roar with laughter. He said _Musky-Dan_ especially was beyond endurance, bringing up an Irishman and his hat fresh from the Spice Islands and odoriferous Ind; she getting quite bitter in her displeasure at his ill behavior and stupidness. Then he would read ballads to her in his own glorious way, the two getting wild with excitement over _Gil Morrice_ or the _Baron of Smailholm_; and he would take her on his knee, and make her repeat Constance’s speeches in _King John_, till he swayed to and fro, sobbing his fill. Fancy the gifted little creature, like one possessed, repeating,-- “For I am sick, and capable of fears,-- Oppressed with wrong, and, therefore, full of fears; A widow, husbandless, subject to fears; A woman, naturally born to fears.” “If thou, that bidst me be content, wert grim, Ugly, and slanderous to thy mother’s womb,-- Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious--.” Or, drawing herself up “to the height of her great argument,”-- “I will instruct my sorrows to be proud, For grief is proud, and makes his owner stout. Here I and sorrow sit.” Scott used to say that he was amazed at her power over him, saying to Mrs. Keith, “She’s the most extraordinary creature I ever met with, and her repeating of Shakespeare overpowers me as nothing else does.” Thanks to the little book whose title heads this paper, and thanks still more to the unforgetting sister of this dear child, who has much of the sensibility and fun of her who has been in her small grave these fifty and more years, we have now before us the letters and journals of Pet Marjorie: before us lies and gleams her rich brown hair, bright and sunny as if yesterday’s, with the words on the paper, “Cut out in her last illness,” and two pictures of her by her beloved Isabella, whom she worshipped; there are the faded old scraps of paper, hoarded still, over which her warm breath and her warm little heart had poured themselves; there is the old water-mark, “Lingard, 1808.” The two portraits are very like each other, but plainly done at different times; it is a chubby, healthy face, deep-set, brooding eyes, as eager to tell what is going on within as to gather in all the glories from without; quick with the wonder and the pride of life: they are eyes that would not be soon satisfied with seeing; eyes that would devour their object, and yet childlike and fearless; and that is a mouth that will not be soon satisfied with love; it has a curious likeness to Scott’s own, which has always appeared to us his sweetest, most mobile, and speaking feature. There she is, looking straight at us as she did at him,--fearless, and full of love, passionate, wild, wilful, fancy’s child. One cannot look at it without thinking of Wordsworth’s lines on poor Hartley Coleridge:-- “O blessed vision, happy child! Thou art so exquisitely wild, I thought of thee with many fears,-- Of what might be thy lot in future years. I thought of times when Pain might be thy guest, Lord of thy house and hospitality; And Grief, uneasy lover! ne’er at rest But when she sat within the touch of thee. O too industrious folly! O vain and causeless melancholy! Nature will either end thee quite, Or, lengthening out thy season of delight, Preserve for thee, by individual right, A young lamb’s heart among the full-grown flock.” And we can imagine Scott, when holding his warm, plump little playfellow in his arms, repeating that stately friend’s lines:-- “Loving she is, and tractable, though wild; And Innocence hath privilege in her, To dignify arch looks and laughing eyes And feats of cunning, and the pretty round Of trespasses, affected to provoke Mock chastisement and partnership in play. And, as a fagot sparkles on the hearth Not less if unattended and alone Than when both young and old sit gathered round And take delight in its activity, Even so this happy creature of herself Is all-sufficient; solitude to her Is blithe society: she fills the air With gladness and involuntary songs.” But we will let her disclose herself. We need hardly say that all this is true, and that these letters are as really Marjorie’s as was this light-brown hair; indeed, you could as easily fabricate the one as the other. There was an old servant--Jeanie Robertson--who was forty years in her grandfather’s family. Marjorie Fleming, or, as she is called in the letters and by Sir Walter, Maidie, was the last child she kept. Jeanie’s wages never exceeded £3 a year, and when she left service she had saved £40. She was devotedly attached to Maidie, rather despising and ill-using her sister Isabella,--a beautiful and gentle child. This partiality made Maidie apt at times to domineer over Isabella. “I mention this,” writes her surviving sister, “for the purpose of telling you an instance of Maidie’s generous justice. When only five years old, when walking in Raith grounds, the two children had run on before, and old Jeanie remembered they might come too near a dangerous mill-lade. She called to them to turn back. Maidie heeded her not, rushed all the faster on, and fell, and would have been lost, had her sister not pulled her back, saving her life, but tearing her clothes. Jeanie flew on Isabella to “give it her” for spoiling her favorite’s dress; Maidie rushed in between, crying out, “Pay (whip) Maidjie as much as you like, and I’ll not say one word; but touch Isy, and I’ll roar like a bull!” Years after Maidie was resting in her grave, my mother used to take me to the place, and told the story always in the exact same words.” This Jeanie must have been a character. She took great pride in exhibiting Maidie’s brother William’s Calvinistic acquirements when nineteen months old, to the officers of a militia regiment then quartered in Kirkcaldy. This performance was so amusing that it was often repeated, and the little theologian was presented by them with a cap and feathers. Jeanie’s glory was “putting him through the carritch” (catechism) in broad Scotch, beginning at the beginning with “Wha made ye, ma bonnie man?” For the correctness of this and the three next replies, Jeanie had no anxiety, but the tone changed to menace, and the closed _nieve_ (fist) was shaken in the child’s face as she demanded, “Of what are you made?” “DIRT,” was the answer uniformly given. “Wull ye never learn to say _dust_, ye thrawn deevil?” with a cuff from the opened hand, was the as inevitable rejoinder. Here is Maidie’s first letter before she was six. The spelling unaltered, and there are no “commoes.” “MY DEAR ISA,--I now sit down to answer all your kind and beloved letters which you was so good as to write to me. This is the first time I ever wrote a letter in my Life. There are a great many Girls in the Square, and they cry just like a pig when we are under the painfull necessity of putting it to Death. Miss Potune, a Lady of my acquaintance, praises me dreadfully. I repeated something out of Dean Swift, and she said I was fit for the stage, and you may think I was primmed up with majestick Pride, but upon my word I felt myselfe turn a little birsay,--birsay is a word which is a word that William composed which is as you may suppose a little enraged. This horrid fat simpliton says that my Aunt is beautiful, which is intirely impossible, for that is not her nature.” What a peppery little pen we wield! What could that have been out of the Sardonic Dean? What other child of that age would have used “beloved” as she does? This power of affection, this faculty of _be_ loving, and wild hunger to be beloved, comes out more and more. She perilled her all upon it, and it may have been as well--we know, indeed, that it was far better--for her that this wealth of love was so soon withdrawn to its one only infinite Giver and Receiver. This must have been the law of her earthly life. Love was indeed “her Lord and King”; and it was perhaps well for her that she found so soon that her and our only Lord and King, Himself is Love. Here are bits from her Diary at Braehead:--“The day of my existence here has been delightful and enchanting. On Saturday I expected no less than three well-made Bucks, the names of whom is here advertised. Mr. Geo. Crakey (Craigie), and Wm. Keith, and Jn. Keith,--the first is the funniest of every one of them. Mr. Crakey and walked to Craky-hall (Craigiehall), hand in hand in Innocence and matitation (meditation) sweet thinking on the kind love which flows in our tender-hearted mind which is overflowing with majestic pleasure no one was ever so polite to me in the hole state of my existence. Mr. Craky you must know is a great Buck, and pretty good-looking. “I am at Ravelston enjoying nature’s fresh air. The birds are singing sweetly, the calf doth frisk, and nature shows her glorious face.” Here is a confession: “I confess I have been very more like a little young divil than a creature for when Isabella went up stairs to teach me religion and my multiplication and to be good and all my other lessons I stamped with my foot and threw my new hat which she had made on the ground and was sulky and was dreadfully passionate, but she never whiped me but said Marjory go into another room and think what a great crime you are committing letting your temper git the better of you. But I went so sulkily that the Devil got the better of me but she never never never whips me so that I think I would be the better of it and the next time that I behave ill I think she should do it for she never never does it.... Isabella has given me praise for checking my temper for I was sulky even when she was kneeling an hole hour teaching me to write.” Our poor little wifie,--_she_ has no doubts of the personality of the Devil! “Yesterday I behave extremely ill in God’s most holy church for I would never attend myself nor let Isabella attend which was a great crime for she often, often tells me that when to or three are geathered together God is in the midst of them, and it was the very same Divil that tempted Job that tempted me I am sure; but he resisted Satan though he had boils and many many other misfortunes which I have escaped.... I am now going to tell you the horible and wretched plaege (plague) that my multiplication gives me you can’t conceive it the most Devilish thing is 8 times 8 and 7 times 7 it is what nature itself cant endure.” This is delicious; and what harm is there in her “Devilish”? It is strong language merely; even old Rowland Hill used to say “he grudged the Devil those rough and ready words.” “I walked to that delightful place Craky-hall with a delightful young man beloved by all his friends especially by me his loveress, but I must not talk any more about him for Isa said it is not proper for to speak of gentalmen but I will never forget him!... I am very very glad that satan has not given me boils and many other misfortunes--In the holy bible these words are written that the Devil goes like a roaring lyon in search of his pray but the lord lets us escape from him but we” (_pauvre petite!_) “do not strive with this awfull Spirit.... To-day I pronunced a word which should never come out of a lady’s lips it was that I called John a Impudent Bitch. I will tell you what I think made me in so bad a humor is I got one or two of that bad bad sina (senna) tea to-day,”--a better excuse for bad humor and bad language than most. She has been reading the Book of Esther: “It was a dreadful thing that Haman was hanged on the very gallows which he had prepared for Mordeca to hang him and his ten sons thereon and it was very wrong and cruel to hang his sons for they did not commit the crime; _but then Jesus was not then come to teach us to be merciful_.” This is wise and beautiful,--has upon it the very dew of youth and of holiness. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings He perfects His praise. “This is Saturday and I am very glad of it because I have play half the Day and I get money too but alas I owe Isabella 4 pence for I am finned 2 pence whenever I bite my nails. Isabella is teaching me to make simme colings nots of interrigations peorids commoes, etc.... As this is Sunday I will meditate upon Senciable and Religious subjects. First I should be very thankful I am not a begger.” This amount of meditation and thankfulness seems to have been all she was able for. “I am going to-morrow to a delightfull place, Braehead by name, belonging to Mrs. Crraford, where there is ducks cocks hens bubbly-jocks 2 dogs 2 cats and swine which is delightful. I think it is shocking to think that the dog and cat should bear them” (this is a meditation physiological), “and they are drowned after all. I would rather have a man-dog than a woman-dog, because they do not bear like women-dogs; it is a hard case--it is shocking. I cam here to enjoy natures delightful breath it is sweeter than a fial (phial) of rose oil.” Braehead is the farm the historical Jock Howison asked and got from our gay James the Fifth, “the gudeman o’ Ballengiech,” as a reward for the services of his flail, when the King had the worst of it at Cramond Brig with the gypsies. The farm is unchanged in size from that time, and still in the unbroken line of the ready and victorious thrasher. Braehead is held on the condition of the possessor being ready to present the King with a ewer and basin to wash his hands, Jock having done this for his unknown king after the _splore_, and when George the Fourth came to Edinburgh this ceremony was performed in silver at Holyrood. It is a lovely neuk this Braehead, preserved almost as it was 200 years ago. “Lot and his wife,” mentioned by Maidie--two quaintly cropped yew-trees--still thrive, the burn runs as it did in her time, and sings the same quiet tune,--as much the same and as different as _Now_ and _Then_. The house full of old family relics and pictures, the sun shining on them through the small deep windows with their plate glass; and there, blinking at the sun, and chattering contentedly, is a parrot, that might, for its looks of eld, have been in the ark, and domineered over and _deaved_ the dove. Everything about the place is old and fresh. This is beautiful: “I am very sorry to say that I forgot God--that is to say I forgot to pray to-day and Isabella told me that I should be thankful that God did not forget me--if he did, O what become of me if I was in danger and God not friends with me--I must go to unquenchable fire and if I was tempted to sin--how could I resist it O no I will never do it again--no no--if I can help it.” (Canny wee wifie!) “My religion is greatly falling off because I dont pray with so much attention when I am saying my prayers, and my charecter is lost among the Braehead people. I hope I will be religious again--but as for regaining my charecter I despare for it.” (Poor little ‘habit and repute’!) Her temper, her passion, and her “badness” are almost daily confessed and deplored: “I will never again trust to my own power, for I see that I cannot be good without God’s assistance,--I will not trust in my own selfe, and Isa’s health will be quite ruined by me,--it will indeed.” “Isa has giving me advice, which is, that when I feal Satan beginning to tempt me, that I flea him and he would flea me.” “Remorse is the worst thing to bear, and I am afraid that I will fall a marter to it.” Poor dear little sinner! Here comes the world again: “In my travels I met with a handsome lad named Charles Balfour Esq., and from him I got ofers of marage--offers of marage, did I say? Nay plenty heard me.” A fine scent for “breach of promise”! This is abrupt and strong: “The Divil is curced and all works. ’Tis a fine work _Newton on the profecies_. I wonder if there is another book of poems comes near the Bible. The Divil always girns at the sight of the Bible.” “Miss Potune” (her “simpliton” friend) “is very fat; she pretends to be very learned. She says she saw a stone that dropt from the skies; but she is a good Christian.” Here come her views on church government: “An Annibabtist is a thing I am not a member of--I am a Pisplekan (Episcopalian) just now, and” (O you little Laodicean and Latitudinarian!) “a Prisbeteran at Kirkcaldy!”--(_Blandula! Vagula! cœlum et animum mutas quæ trans mare_ [i. e. _trans Bodotriam_]_-curris!_)--“my native town.” “Sentiment is not what I am acquainted with as yet, though I wish it, and should like to practise it.” (!) “I wish I had a great, great deal of gratitude in my heart, in all my body.” “There is a new novel published, named _Self-Control_” (Mrs. Brunton’s)--“a very good maxim forsooth!” This is shocking: “Yesterday a marrade man, named Mr. John Balfour, Esq., offered to kiss me, and offered to marry me, though the man” (a fine directness this!) “was espused, and his wife was present and said he must ask her permission; but he did not. I think he was ashamed and confounded before 3 gentlemen--Mr. Jobson and 2 Mr. Kings.” “Mr. Banester’s” (Bannister’s) “Budjet is to-night; I hope it will be a good one. A great many authors have expressed themselves too sentimentally.” You are right, Marjorie. “A Mr. Burns writes a beautiful song on Mr. Cunhaming, whose wife desarted him--truly it is a most beautiful one.” “I like to read the Fabulous historys, about the histerys of Robin, Dickey, flapsay, and Peccay, and it is very amusing, for some were good birds and others bad, but Peccay was the most dutiful and obedient to her parients.” “Thomson is a beautiful author, and Pope, but nothing to Shakespear, of which I have a little knolege. _Macbeth_ is a pretty composition, but awful one.” “The _Newgate Calender_ is very instructive.” (!) “A sailor called here to say farewell; it must be dreadful to leave his native country when he might get a wife; or perhaps me, for I love him very much. But O I forgot, Isabella forbid me to speak about love.” This antiphlogistic regimen and lesson is ill to learn by our Maidie, for here she sins again: “Love is a very papithatick thing” (it is almost a pity to correct this into pathetic), “as well as troublesome and tiresome--but O Isabella forbid me to speak of it.” Here are her reflections on a pine-apple: “I think the price of a pine-apple is very dear: it is a whole bright goulden guinea, that might have sustained a poor family.” Here is a new vernal simile: “The hedges are sprouting like chicks from the eggs when they are newly hatched or as the vulgar say, _clacked_.” “Doctor Swift’s works are very funny; I got some of them by heart.” “Moreheads sermons are I hear much praised but I never read sermons of any kind; but I read novelettes and my Bible, and I never forget it, or my prayers.” Bravo Marjorie! She seems now, when still about six, to have broken out into song:-- “EPHIBOL (EPIGRAM OR EPITAPH--WHO KNOWS WHICH?) ON MY DEAR LOVE, ISABELLA.” Here lies sweet Isabel in bed, With a night-cap on her head; Her skin is soft, her face is fair, And she has very pretty hair: She and I in bed lies nice, And undisturbed by rats or mice. She is disgusted with Mr. Worgan, Though he plays upon the organ. Her nails are neat, her teeth are white; Her eyes are very, very bright. In a conspicuous town she lives, And to the poor her money gives. Here ends sweet Isabella’s story, And may it be much to her glory! Here are some bits at random:-- “Of summer I am very fond And love to bathe into a pond: The look of sunshine dies away, And will not let me out to play. I love the morning’s sun to spy Glittering through the casement’s eye; The rays of light are very sweet, And puts away the taste of meat. The balmy breeze comes down from heaven, And makes us like for to be living.” “The casawary is an curious bird, and so is the gigantic crane, and the pelican of the wilderness, whose mouth holds a bucket of fish and water. Fighting is what ladies is not qualyfied for, they would not make a good figure in battle or in a duel. Alas! we females are of little use to our country. The history of all the malcontents as ever was hanged is amusing.” Still harping on the Newgate Calendar! “Braehead is extremely pleasant to me by the companie of swine, geese, cocks, etc., and they are the delight of my soul.” “I am going to tell you of a melancholy story. A young turkie of 2 or 3 months old, would you believe it, the father broke its leg, and he killed another! I think he ought to be transported or hanged.” “Queen Street is a very gay one, and so is Princes Street, for all the lads and lasses, besides bucks and beggars parade there.” “I should like to see a play very much, for I never saw one in all my life, and don’t believe I ever shall; but I hope I can be content without going to one. I can be quite happy without my desire being granted.” “Some days ago Isabella had a terrible fit of the toothake, and she walked with a long nightshift at dead of night like a ghost, and I thought she was one. She prayed for nature’s sweet restorer--balmy sleep--but did not get it--a ghostly figure indeed she was, enough to make a saint tremble. It made me quiver and shake from top to toe. Superstition is a very mean thing and should be despised and shunned.” Here is her weakness and her strength again:--“In the love-novels all the heroines are very desperate. Isabella will not allow me to speak about lovers and heroins, and ’tis too refined for my taste.” “Miss Egward’s (Edgeworth’s) tails are very good, particularly some that are very much adapted for youth (!) as Laz Laurance and Tarelton, False Keys, etc. etc.” “Tom Jones and Grey’s Elegey in a country churchyard are both excellent, and much spoke of by both sex, particularly by the men.” Are our Marjories now-a-days better or worse because they cannot read Tom Jones unharmed? More better than worse; but who among them can repeat Gray’s Lines on a distant prospect of Eton College as could our Maidie? Here is some more of her prattle: “I went into Isabella’s bed to make her smile like the Genius Demedicus” (the Venus de Medicis) “or the statute in an ancient Greece, but she fell asleep in my very face, at which my anger broke forth, so that I awoke her from a comfortable nap. All was now hushed up again, but again my anger burst forth at her biding me get up.” She begins thus loftily:-- “Death the righteous love to see, But from it doth the wicked flee.” Then suddenly breaks off as if with laughter,-- “I am sure they fly as fast as their legs can carry them!” “There is a thing I love to see,-- That is, our monkey catch a flee!” “I love in Isa’s bed to lie,-- Oh, such a joy and luxury! The bottom of the bed I sleep, And with great care within I creep; Oft I embrace her feet of lillys, But she has goton all the pillys. Her neck I never can embrace, But I do hug her feet in place.” How childish and yet how strong and free is her use of words!--“I lay at the foot of the bed because Isabella said I disturbed her by continial fighting and kicking, but I was very dull, and continially at work reading the Arabian Nights, which I could not have done if I had slept at the top. I am reading the Mysteries of Udolpho. I am much interested in the fate of poor, poor Emily.” Here is one of her swains:-- “Very soft and white his cheeks; His hair is red, and grey his breeks; His tooth is like the daisy fair: His only fault is in his hair.” This is a higher flight:-- “DEDICATED TO MRS. H. CRAWFORD BY THE AUTHOR, M. F. Three turkeys fair their last have breathed, And now this world forever leaved; Their father, and their mother too, They sigh and weep as well as you: Indeed, the rats their bones have crunched; Into eternity theire laanched. A direful death indeed they had, As wad put any parent mad; But she was more than usual calm: She did not give a single dam.” This last word is saved from all sin by its tender age, not to speak of the want of the _n_. We fear “she” is the abandoned mother, in spite of her previous sighs and tears. “Isabella says when we pray we should pray fervently, and not rattel over a prayer,--for that we are kneeling at the footstool of our Lord and Creator, who saves us from eternal damnation, and from unquestionable fire and brimston.” She has a long poem on Mary Queen of Scots:-- “Queen Mary was much loved by all, Both by the great and by the small; But hark! her soul to heaven doth rise, And I suppose she has gained a prize; For I do think she would not go Into the _awful_ place below. There is a thing that I must tell,-- Elizabeth went to fire and hell! He who would teach her to be civil, It must be her great friend, the divil!” She hits off Darnley well:-- “A noble’s son,--a handsome lad,-- By some queer way or other, had Got quite the better of her heart; With him she always talked apart: Silly he was, but very fair; A greater buck was not found there.” “By some queer way or other”; is not this the general case and the mystery, young ladies and gentlemen? Goethe’s doctrine of “elective affinities” discovered by our Pet Maidie. SONNET TO A MONKEY. “O lively, O most charming pug! Thy graceful air and heavenly mug! The beauties of his mind do shine, And every bit is shaped and fine. Your teeth are whiter than the snow; Your a great buck, your a great beau; Your eyes are of so nice a shape, More like a Christian’s than an ape; Your cheek is like the rose’s blume; Your hair is like the raven’s plume; His nose’s cast is of the Roman: He is a very pretty woman. I could not get a rhyme for Roman, So was obliged to call him woman.” This last joke is good. She repeats it when writing of James the Second being killed at Roxburgh:-- “He was killed by a cannon splinter, Quite in the middle of the winter; Perhaps it was not at that time, But I can get no other rhyme!” Here is one of her last letters, dated Kirkcaldy, 12th October, 1811. You can see how her nature is deepening and enriching:-- “MY DEAR MOTHER,--You will think that I entirely forget you but I assure you that you are greatly mistaken I think of you always and often sigh to think of the distance between us two loving creatures of nature. We have regular hours for all our occupations first at 7 o’clock we go to the dancing and come home at 8 we then read our Bible and get our repeating, and then play till ten, then we get our music till 11 when we get our writing and accounts we sew from 12 till 1 after which I get my gramer and then work till five. At 7 we come and knit till 8 when we dont go to the dancing. This is an exact description. I must take a hasty farewell to her whom I love, reverence and doat on and who I hope thinks the same of “MARJORY FLEMING. “_P. S._--An old pack of cards (!) would be very exeptible.” This other is a month earlier:-- “MY DEAR LITTLE MAMA,--I was truly happy to hear that you were all well. We are surrounded with measles at present on every side, for the Herons got it and Isabella Heron was near Death’s Door, and one night her father lifted her out of bed, and she fell down as they thought lifeless. Mr. Heron said, ‘That lassie’s deed noo,’--‘I’m no deed yet.’ She then threw up a big worm nine inches and a half long. I have begun dancing, but am not very fond of it, for the boys strikes and mocks me.--I have been another night at the dancing; I like it better. I will write to you as often as I can; but I am afraid not every week. _I long for you with the longings of a child to embrace you,--to fold you in my arms. I respect you with all the respect due to a mother. You dont know how I love you. So I shall remain your loving child_,--M. FLEMING.” What rich involution of love in the words marked! Here are some lines to her beloved Isabella, in July, 1811:-- “There is a thing that I do want,-- With you these beauteous walks to haunt; We would be happy if you would Try to come over if you could. Then I would all quite happy be _Now and for all eternity_. My mother is so very sweet, _Ana checks my appetite to eat_; My father shows us what to do; But O I’m sure that I want you. I have no more of poetry; O Isa do remember me, And try to love your Marjory.” In a letter from “Isa” to “Miss Muff Maidie Marjory Fleming, favored by Rare Rear-Admiral Fleming,” she says: “I long much to see you, and talk over all our old stories together, and to hear you read and repeat. I am pining for my old friend Cesario, and poor Lear, and wicked Richard. How is the dear Multiplication table going on? Are you still as much attached to 9 times 9 as you used to be?” But this dainty, bright thing is about to flee,--to come “quick to confusion.” The measles she writes of seized her, and she died on the 19th of December, 1811. The day before her death, Sunday, she sat up in bed, worn and thin, her eye gleaming as with the light of a coming world, and with a tremulous, old voice repeated the following lines by Burns,--heavy with the shadow of death, and lit with the phantasy of the judgment-seat,--the publican’s prayer in paraphrase:-- “Why am I loth to leave this earthly scene? Have I so found it full of pleasing charms?-- Some drops of joy, with draughts of ill between, Some gleams of sunshine ’mid renewing storms? Is it departing pangs my soul alarms? Or Death’s unlovely, dreary, dark abode? For guilt, for GUILT, my terrors are in arms; I tremble to approach an angry God, And justly smart beneath his sin-avenging rod. “Fain would I say, Forgive my foul offence, Fain promise never more to disobey; But should my Author health again dispense, Again I might forsake fair virtue’s way, Again in folly’s path might go astray, Again exalt the brute and sink the man. Then how should I for heavenly mercy pray, Who act so counter heavenly mercy’s plan, Who sin so oft have mourned, yet to temptation ran? “O thou great Governor of all below, If I might dare a lifted eye to thee, Thy nod can make the tempest cease to blow, And still the tumult of the raging sea; With that controlling power assist even me Those headstrong furious passions to confine, For all unfit I feel my powers to be To rule their torrent in the allowed line; O aid me with thy help, OMNIPOTENCE DIVINE.” It is more affecting than we care to say to read her Mother’s and Isabella Keith’s letters written immediately after her death. Old and withered, tattered and pale, they are now: but when you read them, how quick, how throbbing with life and love! how rich in that language of affection which only women and Shakespeare and Luther can use,--that power of detaining the soul over the beloved object and its loss! “_K. Philip to Constance_-- You are as fond of grief as of your child. _Const._--Grief fills the room up of my absent child, Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me; Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, Remembers me of all his gracious parts, Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form, Then I have reason to be fond of grief.” What variations cannot love play on this one string! In her first letter to Miss Keith, Mrs. Fleming says of her dead Maidie: “Never did I behold so beautiful an object. It resembled the finest wax-work. There was in the countenance an expression of sweetness and serenity which seemed to indicate that the pure spirit had anticipated the joys of heaven ere it quitted the mortal frame. To tell you what your Maidie said of you would fill volumes; for you was the constant theme of her discourse, the subject of her thoughts, and ruler of her actions. The last time she mentioned you was a few hours before all sense save that of suffering was suspended, when she said to Dr. Johnstone, ‘If you let me out at the New Year, I will be quite contented.’ I asked her what made her so anxious to get out then? ‘I want to purchase a New Year’s gift for Isa Keith with the sixpence you gave me for being patient in the measeles; and I would like to choose it myself.’ I do not remember her speaking afterwards, except to complain of her head, till just before she expired, when she articulated, ‘O mother! mother!’” Do we make too much of this little child, who has been in her grave in Abbotshall Kirkyard these fifty and more years? We may of her cleverness,--not of her affectionateness, her nature. What a picture the _animosa infans_ gives us of herself,--her vivacity, her passionateness, her precocious love-making, her passion for nature, for swine, for all living things, her reading, her turn for expression, her satire, her frankness, her little sins and rages, her great repentances! We don’t wonder Walter Scott carried her off in the neuk of his plaid, and played himself with her for hours. The year before she died, when in Edinburgh, she was at a Twelfth Night Supper at Scott’s, in Castle Street. The company had all come,--all but Marjorie. Scott’s familiars, whom we all know, were there,--all were come but Marjorie; and all were dull because Scott was dull. “Where’s that bairn? what can have come over her? I’ll go myself and see.” And he was getting up, and would have gone; when the bell rang, and in came Duncan Roy and his henchman Tougald, with the sedan chair, which was brought right into the lobby, and its top raised. And there, in its darkness and dingy old cloth, sat Maidie in white, her eyes gleaming, and Scott bending over her in ecstasy--“hung over her enamored.” “Sit ye there, my dautie, till they all see you”; and forthwith he brought them all. You can fancy the scene. And he lifted her up and marched to his seat with her on his stout shoulder, and set her down beside him; and then began the night, and such a night! Those who knew Scott best said, that night was never equalled; Maidie and he were the stars; and she gave them _Constance’s_ speeches and _Helvellyn_, the ballad then much in vogue, and all her _répertoire_,--Scott showing her off, and being ofttimes rebuked by her for his intentional blunders. We are indebted for the following--and our readers will be not unwilling to share our obligations--to her sister: “Her birth was 15th January, 1803; her death, 19th December, 1811. I take this from her Bibles.[3] I believe she was a child of robust health, of much vigor of body, and beautifully formed arms, and, until her last illness, never was an hour in bed. She was niece to Mrs. Keith, residing in No. 1 North Charlotte Street, who was _not_ Mrs. Murray Keith, although very intimately acquainted with that old lady. My aunt was a daughter of Mr. James Rae, surgeon, and married the younger son of old Keith of Ravelstone. Corstorphine Hill belonged to my aunt’s husband; and his eldest son, Sir Alexander Keith, succeeded his uncle to both Ravelstone and Dunnottar. The Keiths were not connected by relationship with the Howisons of Braehead, but my grandfather and grandmother (who was), a daughter of Cant of Thurston and Giles-Grange, were on the most intimate footing with _our_ Mrs. Keith’s grandfather and grandmother; and so it has been for three generations, and the friendship consummated by my cousin William Keith marrying Isabella Craufurd. “As to my aunt and Scott, they were on a very intimate footing. He asked my aunt to be godmother to his eldest daughter Sophia Charlotte. I had a copy of Miss Edgeworth’s ‘Rosamond, and Harry and Lucy’ for long, which was ‘a gift to Marjorie from Walter Scott,’ probably the first edition of that attractive series, for it wanted ‘Frank,’ which is always now published as part of the series, under the title of _Early Lessons_. I regret to say these little volumes have disappeared. “Sir Walter was no relation of Marjorie’s, but of the Keiths, through the Swintons; and, like Marjorie, he stayed much at Ravelstone in his early days, with his grandaunt Mrs. Keith; and it was while seeing him there as a boy, that another aunt of mine composed, when he was about fourteen, the lines prognosticating his future fame that Lockhart ascribes in his Life to Mrs. Cockburn, authoress of ‘The Flowers of the Forest’:-- “Go on, dear youth, the glorious path pursue Which bounteous Nature kindly smooths for you; Go bid the seeds her hands have sown arise, By timely culture, to their native skies; Go, and employ the poet’s heavenly art, Not merely to delight, but mend the heart.” Mrs. Keir was my aunt’s name, another of Dr. Rae’s daughters.” We cannot better end than in words from this same pen: “I have to ask you to forgive my anxiety in gathering up the fragments of Marjorie’s last days, but I have an almost sacred feeling to all that pertains to her. You are quite correct in stating that measles were the cause of her death. My mother was struck by the patient quietness manifested by Marjorie during this illness, unlike her ardent, impulsive nature; but love and poetic feeling were unquenched. When Dr. Johnstone rewarded her submissiveness with a sixpence, the request speedily followed that she might get out ere New Year’s day came. When asked why she was so desirous of getting out, she immediately rejoined, ‘Oh, I am so anxious to buy something with my sixpence for my dear Isa Keith.’ Again, when lying very still, her mother asked her if there was anything she wished: ‘Oh yes! if you would just leave the room door open a wee bit, and play ‘The Land o’ the Leal,’ and I will lie and _think_, and enjoy myself’ (this is just as stated to me by her mother and mine). Well, the happy day came, alike to parents and child, when Marjorie was allowed to come forth from the nursery to the parlor. It was Sabbath evening, and after tea. My father, who idolized this child, and never afterwards in my hearing mentioned her name, took her in his arms; and, while walking her up and down the room, she said, ‘Father, I will repeat something to you; what would you like?’ He said, ‘Just choose yourself, Maidie.’ She hesitated for a moment between the paraphrase, ‘Few are thy days, and full of woe,’ and the lines of Burns already quoted, but decided on the latter, a remarkable choice for a child. The repeating these lines seemed to stir up the depths of feeling in her soul. She asked to be allowed to write a poem; there was a doubt whether it would be right to allow her, in case of hurting her eyes. She pleaded earnestly, ‘Just this once’; the point was yielded, her slate was given her, and with great rapidity she wrote an address of fourteen lines, ‘to her loved cousin on the author’s recovery,’ her last work on earth:-- ‘Oh! Isa, pain did visit me, I was at the last extremity; How often did I think of you, I wished your graceful form to view, To clasp you in my weak embrace, Indeed I thought I’d run my race: Good care, I’m sure, was of me taken, But still indeed I was much shaken, At last I daily strength did gain, And oh! at last, away went pain; At length the doctor thought I might Stay in the parlor all the night; I now continue so to do, Farewell to Nancy and to you.’ “She went to bed apparently well, awoke in the middle of the night with the old cry of woe to a mother’s heart, ‘My head, my head!’ Three days of the dire malady, ‘water in the head,’ followed, and the end came.” “Soft, silken primrose, fading timelessly.” It is needless, it is impossible, to add anything to this: the fervor, the sweetness, the flush of poetic ecstasy, the lovely and glowing eye, the perfect nature of that bright and warm intelligence, that darling child,--Lady Nairne’s words, and the old tune, stealing up from the depths of the human heart, deep calling unto deep, gentle and strong like the waves of the great sea hushing themselves to sleep in the dark; the words of Burns, touching the kindred chord, her last numbers “wildly sweet” traced, with thin and eager fingers, already touched by the last enemy and friend,--_moriens canit_,--and that love which is so soon to be her everlasting light, is her song’s burden to the end. “She set as sets the morning star, which goes Not down behind the darkened west, nor hides Obscured among the tempests of the sky, But melts away into the light of heaven.” Cambridge: Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: This favorite dog “died about January, 1809, and was buried, in a fine moonlight night, in the little garden behind the house in Castle Street. My wife tells me she remembers the whole family in tears about the grave, as her father himself smoothed the turf above Camp with the saddest face she had ever seen. He had been engaged to dine abroad that day, but apologized on account of the death of ‘a dear old friend.’”--Lockhart’s _Life of Scott_.] [Footnote 2: Applied to a pump when it is dry and its valve has lost its “fang”; from the German, _fangen_, to hold.] [Footnote 3: “Her Bible is before me; _a pair_, as then called; the faded marks are just as she placed them. There is one at David’s lament over Jonathan.”] MARJORIE FLEMING. A SKETCH. BEING THE PAPER ENTITLED “_PET MARJORIE: A STORY OF CHILD-LIFE FIFTY YEARS AGO._” BY JOHN BROWN, M. D., AUTHOR OF “RAB AND HIS FRIENDS.” BOSTON: TICKNOR AND FIELDS. 1864. DR. BROWN’S WRITINGS. SPARE HOURS; BY JOHN BROWN, M. D. 1 vol. 12mo. $1.50. The author of “Rab and his Friends” scarcely needs an introduction to American readers. By this time many have learned to agree, with a writer in the NORTH BRITISH REVIEW, that “Rab” is, all things considered, the most perfect prose narrative since Lamb’s “Rosamond Gray.” [From the LONDON TIMES, October 21.] “Of all the John Browns, commend us to Dr. John Brown, the physician, the man of genius, the humorist, the student of men, women, and dogs. By means of two beautiful volumes he has given the public a share of his by-hours, and more pleasant hours it would be difficult to find in any life. “Dr. Brown’s master-piece is the story of a dog called ‘Rab.’ The tale moves from the most tragic pathos to the most reckless humor, and could not have been written but by a man of genius. Whether it moves to laughter or to tears, it is perfect in its way, and immortalizes its author.” RAB AND HIS FRIENDS. 3d edition. 1 vol. 16mo. Paper. 15 cents. [From the MORNING HERALD.] “Who is he that has not heard of, if not read, ‘Rab and his Friends’? We suppose that there have been few stories ever printed which, in so short a time, won for their author fame. Certainly never was a story so short and so pathetic, so full of joyous tears, so brimming with the actions from which spring sacred pity. We do not envy the man, and we cannot imagine the woman or girl, who could read the story of ‘Rab and his Friends’ without tears actual or imminent.” [From CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL.] “What Landseer is upon canvas, that Dr. Brown is upon paper. The canine family was never before so well represented in literature.” PET MARJORIE. 1 vol. 16mo. Paper. 25 cents. » For sale by all booksellers, or sent, _postpaid_, to any address on receipt of the price, by the publishers, =TICKNOR & FIELDS, Boston=. MR. LONGFELLOW’S NEW VOLUME. The recent publication of Mr. Longfellow’s new work may justly be regarded as one of the most important events in the literature of the year. The work itself is pronounced by competent critics the most finished production of the poet’s genius. TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN, _AND OTHER POEMS_. BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 1 vol. 16mo. $1.25. Handsomely bound in muslin, bevelled boards, and gilt top. » Sent, _postpaid_, to any address on receipt of the price, by the publishers, =TICKNOR & FIELDS=, =135 Washington St., Boston=. THE GREAT BATTLE BOOK. TICKNOR & FIELDS have just published My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field. BY “CARLETON.” 1 vol. 12mo. Profusely illustrated with Engravings, Maps, and Diagrams. $1.00. The object of this book is to tell the youth of America, in plain and simple terms, _THE CAUSES OF THE REBELLION_; to give them an idea of the valor and courage of their fathers and brothers, who are now upholding the national cause by fighting _THE BATTLES OF THEIR COUNTRY_. With this view, the author has given authentic and vivid descriptions of some of the most important battles of the war, drawn from his own personal observations, and has thus made his work at once an ABSORBING NARRATIVE and a TRUTHFUL HISTORY of the war. All parents who desire their sons to have a clear and distinct idea of the nature of the struggle through which the country is passing, should buy this book. “CARLETON,” the author, is well known as one of the best and most reliable of the army correspondents. » A copy sent, _postpaid_, to any address on receipt of ONE DOLLAR, by the publishers, =TICKNOR & FIELDS, Boston=. CHOICE NEW BOOKS, LATELY PUBLISHED BY TICKNOR AND FIELDS, BOSTON. _THE LIFE OF WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT_, Author of “The Conquest of Mexico,” “The Conquest of Peru,” etc. By GEORGE TICKNOR, Author of the “History of Spanish Literature.” 1 vol. Quarto. Illustrated with Steel Portraits, Wood Cuts, and Autographs, and elegantly printed and bound. $7.50. _TALES OF A WAYSIDE INN_, and Other Poems. By HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. With Vignette Illustration by F. O. C. Darley. 1 vol. 16mo. Bevelled and gilt. $1.25. _THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN WINTHROP._ By ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 1 vol. 8vo. Handsomely bound in muslin, with Steel Portraits and Wood Engravings. $3.00. _HOUSEHOLD FRIENDS._ A book for all seasons. Illustrated with Engravings on Steel. 1 vol. Small 4to. Cloth, handsomely stamped. $3.00. Also for sale in elegant Turkey morocco. $6.00. _ANGEL VOICES_; or, Words of Counsel for Overcoming the World. An entirely new edition. 1 vol. Small 4to. Cloth, appropriately stamped. $2.00. _LITTLE ANNA._ A Story for Pleasant Little Children. By A. STEIN. Translated from the German. 1 vol. Square 16mo. Illustrated with Engravings on Wood. 75 cents. _SOUNDINGS PROM THE ATLANTIC._ By OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 1 vol. 16mo. $1.25. _THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS._ Translated by GEORGE LONG. 1 vol. 16mo. $1.00. _IN WAR TIME_, and Other Poems. By JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 1 vol. 16mo. Cloth, bevelled and gilt. $1.00. _MENTAL HYGIENE._ By I. RAY, M. D., Superintendent of Butler Hospital, Providence, R. I. 1 vol. 16mo. $1.25. _OUR OLD HOME_; A Series of English Sketches. By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Author of the “Scarlet Letter,” etc. 1 vol. 16mo. Brown cloth, uniform with Hawthorne’s works. $1.25. _REMAINS IN PROSE AND VERSE._ By ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM. 1 vol. 16mo. Cloth. Bevelled boards and gilt top. $1.50. _METHODS OF STUDY IN NATURAL HISTORY._ With many Original Illustrations. By LOUIS AGASSIZ. 1 vol. 16mo. $1.25. _GALA DAYS._ By GAIL HAMILTON, Author of “Country Living and Country Thinking.” 1 vol. 16mo. Bevelled boards and red edges. $1.50. _FREEDOM AND WAR._ Discourses connected with the Times. By Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 1 vol. 12mo. $1.50. » Copies of the above sent _postpaid_, on receipt of the advertised price, by the publishers. =135 Washington Street, Boston.= =TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES= Simple typographical errors have been silently corrected. Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed. Inconsistent quotation marks left as printed. In order to get proper compatibility for epubs versions, white right pointing index unicode character was replaced by right-pointing double angle quotation mark. *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARJORIE FLEMING *** Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed. Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. START: FULL LICENSE THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at www.gutenberg.org/license. Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. 1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the United States and you are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when you share it without charge with others. 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any country other than the United States. 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or distributed: This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project Gutenberg™ License. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website (www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works provided that: • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ works. • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of receipt of the work. • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. 1.F. 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the problem. 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect you cause. Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from people in all walks of life. Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with the IRS. The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate. While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who approach us with offers to donate. International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate. Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Most people start at our website which has the main PG search facility: www.gutenberg.org. This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.