But with both it was a matter of every-day life, from which no hope or fear, no sorrow or joy, no plan, no word or deed, could be separated.
And however imperfectly, so it became with me.

Like most children, I had my own rather vivid idea of the day of judgment.

The thought of death was familiar to me.

(It is seldom, I think, a painful one in childhood.) I fully realized the couplet which concluded a certain quaint old rhyme in honour of the four Evangelists which Nurse Bundle had taught me to repeat in bed-- "If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." I used to recite a similar one when I was dressed in the morning-- "If my soul depart to-day, A place in Paradise I pray." When I had had a particularly pleasant ride, or enjoyed myself much during the day, I thanked GOD specially in my evening prayers.

I remember that whatever I wished for I prayed for, in the complete belief that this was the readiest way to obtain it.