“My dear Lockhart,—I
had Sophia’s letter yesterday, and
your kind note to-night. I rejoice to hear of Johnnie’s health and his grand flip towards instruction.
I hope Mrs. Mactavish, whom I like not the worse, you may
be sure, for her name, will be mild in her rule, and let him listen to reading
a good deal without cramming the alphabet and grammar down the poor
child’s throat. I cannot at this moment tell how or when I learned to
read, but it was by fits and snatches, as one aunt or another in the old
rumble-tumble farm-houses could give me a lesson, and I am sure it increased my
love and habit
| 398 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. |
