I love Mrs.Gray and I love Mr.Gray.

I would like you to come home, and my kiss and my love." [First autograph in straggling capitals] "JOHN RUSKIN" When once he could read, thenceforward his mother gave him regular morning lessons in Bible-reading and in reciting the Scotch paraphrases of the Psalms and other verse, which for his good memory was an easy task.

He made rhymes before he could write them, of course.
At five he was a bookworm, and the books he read fixed him in certain grooves of thought, or, rather, say they were chosen as favourites from an especial interest in their subjects--an interest which arose from his character of mind, and displayed it.

But with all this precocity, he was no milksop or weakling; he was a bright, active lad, full of fun and pranks, not without companions, though solitary when at home, and kept precisely, in the hope of guarding him from every danger.

He was so little afraid of animals--a great test of a child's nerves--that about this time he must needs meddle with their fierce Newfoundland dog, Lion, which bit him in the mouth, and spoiled his looks.