Page:The Leadbeater Papers (1862) Vol 1.djvu/418

an apple-tree; the room was light and airy, and a pot of mignonette in the window diffused a soft fragrance. Wealth could not purchase, I thought, more comforts than I enjoyed, and I hope I was thankful. Yet through all the attentions and comforts which I experienced the idea of my beloved brother would come pensively over my mind. I seemed to look around for his endearing sympathy, his instructive and delightful converse, which I had often found so soothing in sickness and in sorrow. Never can I forget the time when, at ten years old, I had the ague, nor his visits every evening to draw a picture for me in a little book which he had made for the purpose. That book, preserved with care and often looked at with great enjoyment, I am now afraid to open.

The Bonham family, having returned from their northern tour, became our neighbours, and kept up a friendly social intercourse with us; yet I believe John Bonham's feeling heart found a vacuum which could not be filled here, in the loss of my dear brother, whose tastes and benevolence so coincided with his own. Margaret Bonham appears to value life and all its comforts only as it gives her power to do good. The activity of her nature urges or drags on those who are of feebler force. Disregarding weather, she walks about in pattens, or rides on horseback with a servant walking beside her, inspecting the situation of the poor, and thoughtful to assist them by promoting that independence which springs from industry. She encouraged us to raise a fund, by subscribing one penny per week to