Another time he was for fitting it up as a museum.

It would make, he said, a splendid place for a _hortus siccus_--a "great ornament to our ponds and ditches[4]." The writer of these trifles excuses herself for collecting them, because she knew the value which is attached to the least of the sayings and doings of a departed friend; but we are assured, that even in those Arcadian regions life was not always holiday.

There was some serious work.

The curate took great pains on the future interests as well as the characters of his little flock.
In one family he acted the part of the truest of friends--gently reproving the little ones when they deserved it, and ready to amuse when it was the time for amusement--sometimes taking them to Bath for the day, and making them very happy, bestowing at the same time great pains on their instruction--sometimes practising music with them, and accompanying their sonatas on his incomparable flute--recommending to the governess a higher style of music, leading them on gradually to the works of Beethoven and Mozart.

By and by he gave them instructions in architecture; taught them, as he said, all that he had learned from Rickman.