To Skeff [a younger brother, aged six].
My dear Skeff,—
Roar not lest thou be abolished.
The discomforts which he, as a "new boy," had to put up with from his school-mates affected him as they do not, unfortunately, affect most boys, for in later school days he was famous as a champion of the weak and small, while every bully had good reason to fear him. Though it is hard for those who have only known him as the gentle and retiring don to believe it, it is nevertheless true that long after he left school his name was remembered as that of a boy who knew well how to use his fists in defence of a righteous cause.
As was the custom at that time, Charles began to compose Latin verses at a very early age, his first copy being dated November 25, 1844. The subject was evening, and this is how he treated it:—
Splendore aurato. Pervenit umbra solo.
Mortales lectos quærunt, et membra relaxant.
Fessa labore dies; cuncta per orbe silet.
Imperium placidum nunc sumit Phœbe corusca.
Antris procedunt sanguine ore feræ.
