What would you like to write about ?" "Don't know." "Haven't you anything at home to describe." "No." "Any pets ?" "Why I have a homely, ordinary dog, but he knows a lot." And so I was roused to try "Our Rab and His Friends," which was kindly mailed by Miss Phelps to Mr.Ford, the editor, with a wish that he accept the little story, which he did, sending a welcome check and asking for more contributions.

I kept a place there for several years.
In Miss Phelps's case, one must believe in heredity and partly in Huxley's statement that "we are automata propelled by our ancestors." Her grandfather, Moses Stuart, was Professor of Sacred Literature at Andover, a teacher of Greek and Latin, and a believer in that stern school of theology and teleology.

It was owing perhaps to a combination of severity in climatic and in intellectual environment that New England developed an austere type of scholars and theologians.

Their mental vision was focused on things remote in time and supernatural in quality, so much so that they often overlooked the simple and natural expression of their obligation to things nearby.

It sometimes happened that their tender and amiable characteristics were better known to learned colleagues with whom they were in intellectual sympathy, than to their own wives and children.