Part 34 (1/2)
The verses to ”Matilda Jane” certainly deserve a place in this chapter Toclear, I must state that Lewis Carroll wrote them for a little cousin of his, and that Matilda Jane was the somewhat prosaic name of her doll The poe devotion which the infant mind professes for inanimate objects:--
Matilda Jane, you never look At any toy or picture-book; I show you pretty things in vain, You must be blind, Matilda Jane!
I ask you riddles, tell you tales, But all our conversation fails; You never answer ain, I fear you're du, when I call You never seeht and main, But you're _so_ deaf, Matilda Jane!
Matilda Jane, you needn't h you're deaf, and dumb, and blind, There's some one loves you, it is plain, And that is _ave soson's letters to Miss Edith Rix; the thich follow, being largely about children, seem more appropriate here:--
My dear Edith,--Would you tell yourthe address of her letter to son, Ch Ch, Oxford” When a letter cooes to the Dead Letter Office, or it ih whose hands it goes, the very fact I least want them to know
Please offer to your sister all the necessary apologies for the liberty I have taken with her name My only excuse is, that I know no other; and how _auess what the full name is? It _may_ be Carlotta, or Zealot, or Ballot, or Lotus-blossom (a very pretty na lady of whoe, so it is, alternately picturing her as a little toddling thing of 5, and a tall girl of 15!); disposition--well, I _have_ a fragment of infor, ”It ive us”
Still, I _cannot_ consider thedisposition as a complete view of her character I feel sure she has some other qualities besides
Believe son
My dear child,--It see in this style, that our correspondence may at last assume a really friendly tone I don't of course say it will actually do so--that would be too bold a prophecy, but only that it may tend to shape itself in that direction
Your remark, that slippers for elephants _could_ be made, only they would not be slippers, but boots, convinces me that there is a branch of your fa distracted! There's a lady in the opposite house who sis are wails, and their tunes, such as they have, arenote in her voice, and she knows it! I _think_ it's ”A natural,” but I haven't ets to that note, she howls!) they?
The O'Rixes, I suppose?
About your uninteresting neighbours, I sympathise with you ht teach you _not_ to say ”It is difficult to visit one's district regularly, like every one else does!”
And now I co part of your letter-- May you treatyou like to me, and ask my advice? Why, _of course_ you ood for? But oh, uess how such words sound to _ _my_ advice--well, it makes one feel humble, I think, rather than proud--humble to remember, while others think so well of me, what I really _am_, in myself ”Thou, that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?” Well, I won't talk about myself, it is not a healthy topic Perhaps it may be true of _any_ two people, that, if one could see the other through and through, love would perish I don't know Anyhow, I like to _have_ the love of my child-friends, tho' I know I don't deserve it Please write as freely as _ever_ you like
I went up to town and fetched Phoebe down here on Friday in last week; and we spent _, and ”as happy as a bird upon the wing” (to quote the song she sang when first I saw her) Tuesday evening brought a telegra So, instead of going to bed, Phoebe packed her things, and we left by the last train, reaching her home by a quarter to 1 am However, even four days of sea-air, and a new kind of happiness, did her good, I think I aone She is a very sweet child, and a thoughtful child, too It was very touching to see (we had a little Bible-reading every day: I tried to remember that my little friend had a soul to be cared for, as well as a body) the far-away look in her eyes, e talked of God and of heaven--as if her angel, who beholds His face continually, hispering to her
Of course, there isn't _much_ companionshi+p possible, after all, between an old man's mind and a little child's, but what there is is sweet--and wholesome, I think
Three letters of his to a child-friend, Miss Kathleen Eschwege, now Mrs Round, illustrate one of those friendshi+ps which endure: the sort of friendshi+p that he always longed for, and so often failed to secure:--
[Illustrations and: Facsi-Glass Letter” from Lewis Carroll to Miss Edith Ball]
Ch Ch, Oxford, _October_ 24, 1879
My dear Kathleen,--I was really pleased to get your letter, as I had quite supposed I should never see or hear of you again You see I knew only your Christian nahost of a surname, or the shadow of an address--and I was not prepared to spendlady, as travelling on the GW Railway, &c”
--or to devote the re ”Kathleen,” like that young won land to look for her lover, but only knew that he was called ”Edward” (or ”Richard” was it? I dare say you know History better than I do) and that he lived in England; so that naturally it took her some time to find him All I kneas that _you_ could, if you chose, write to h Macmillan: but it is threeit, and it was a pleasant surprise
Well, so I hope I may now count you as one of my child-friends I am fond of children (except boys), and have ers, even if I were a centipede (by the way, _have_ they fingers? I'm afraid they're only feet, but, of course, they use them for the same purpose, and that is why no other insects, _except centipedes_, ever succeed in doing _Long Multiplication_), and I have several not so very far from you--one at Beckenham, two at Balham, two at Herne Hill, one at Peckha somewhere near you _before the year_ 1979 If so, may I call? I am _very_ sorry your neck is no better, and I wish they would take you to Margate: Margate air will