"_Jan. 15th, 1875._--Frewen contemplates suspending soap-bubbles by silk threads for experimental purposes. I don't think he will manage that. Bernard" [the youngest] "volunteered to blow the bubbles with enthusiasm." "_Jan. 17th._--I am learning a great deal of electrostatics in consequence of the perpetual cross-examination to which I am subjected. I long for you on many grounds, but one is that I may not be obliged to deliver a running lecture on abstract points of science, subject to cross-examination by two acute students. Bernie does not cross-examine much; but if any one gets discomfited, he laughs a sort of little silver-whistle giggle, which is trying to the unhappy blunderer." "_May 9th._--Frewen is deep in parachutes. I beg him not to drop from the top landing in one of his own making." "_June 6th, 1876._--Frewen's crank axle is a failure just at present--but he bears up." "_June 14th._--The boys enjoy their riding. It gets them whole funds of adventures. One of their caps falling off is matter for delightful reminiscences; and when a horse breaks his step, the occurrence becomes a rear, a shy, or a plunge as they talk it over. Austin, with quiet confidence, speaks of the greater pleasure in riding a spirited horse, even if he does give a little trouble. It is the stolid brute that he dislikes. (N.B.--You can still see six inches between him and the saddle when his pony trots.) I listen and sympathise and throw out no hint that their achievements are not really great." "_June 18th._--Bernard is much impressed by the fact that I can be useful to Frewen about the steamboat" [which the latter irrepressible inventor was making]. "He says quite with awe, 'He would not have got on nearly so well if you had not helped him.'" "_June 27th._--I do not see what I could do without Austin. He talks so pleasantly, and is so truly good all through." "_July 7th._--My chief difficulty with Austin is to get him measured for a pair of trousers. Hitherto I have failed, but I keep a stout heart and mean to succeed. Frewen the observer, in describing the paces of two horses, says, 'Polly takes twenty-seven steps to get round the school. I couldn't count Sophy, but she takes more than a hundred.'" "_Feb. 18th, 1877._--We all feel very lonely without you. Frewen had to come up and sit in my room for company last night, and I actually kissed him, a thing that has not occurred for years. Jack, poor fellow, bears it as well as he can, and has taken the opportunity of having a fester on his foot, so he is lame, and has it bathed, and this occupies his thoughts a good deal." "_Feb. 19th._--As to Mill, Austin has not got the list yet. I think it will prejudice him very much against Mill--but that is not my affair. Education of that kind!... I would as soon cram my boys with food, and boast of the pounds they had eaten, as cram them with literature."