"
I haven't, and I told him so this last time. I often pray that if ever
I am great I may be good too; and sometimes I pray that if I try hard
to be good God will let me be great as well.
The most wonderful thing was old Rowe's taking a cheap ticket and
coming down to see me last summer. I never can regret my voyage with
him in the _Betsy_, for I did thoroughly enjoy it, though I often
think how odd it is that in my vain, jealous wild-goose chase after
adventures I missed the chance of distinguishing myself in the only
Great Emergency which has yet occurred in our family.
A VERY ILL-TEMPERED FAMILY.
"Finding, following, keeping, struggling,
Is HE sure to bless?"
_Hymn of the Eastern Church._
CHAPTER I.
A FAMILY FAILING.
We are a very ill-tempered family.
I want to say it, and not to unsay it by any explanations, because I
think it is good for us to face the fact in the unadorned form in
which it probably presents itself to the minds of our friends.
Amongst ourselves we have always admitted it by pieces, as it were, or
in negative propositions. We allow that we are firm of disposition; we
know that we are straightforward; we show what we feel.
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