were to come home, and not know what room he was in! If I am to
choose between the patterns of chintz, I prefer the sea-weed variety,
as in character with things in general, and with the present
occasion; and as to the carpet, I hope that Flora, touched with our
submission, will not send us anything distressing.'

* * * * * *

'July 17th.--Can you send me any more of the New Zealand letters? I
have copied out the whole provision I brought with me for the blank
book, and by the way have inoculated Leonard with such a missionary
fever as frightens me. To be sure, he is cut out for such work. He
is intended for a clergyman (on grounds of gentility, I fear), and is
too full of physical energy and enterprise to take readily to sober
parochial life. His ardour is a gallant thing, and his home ties not
binding; but it is not fair to take advantage of his present
inflammable state of enthusiasm, and the little we have said has been
taken up so fervently, that I have resolved on caution for the
future. It is foolish to make so much of a boy's eagerness,
especially when circumstances have brought him into an unnatural
dreamy mood; and probably these aspirations will pass away with the
sound of the waves, but they are pretty and endearing while they last
in their force and sincerity.


'"Just at the age 'twixt boy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth;"


'and one's heart beats at the thought of what is possible to creatures