THE WIFE OF THOMAS CARLYLE. 173 the dignity of Latin, undeterred by her father's good- natured indifference and her mother's opposition. It was not her custom either to tease or pout ; she simply took the matter into her own hands, sought out a school-boy whom she induced to teach her the mysteries of nouns of the first declension, and pursued her studies by herself. One night when she was supposed to be in bed, a small voice was heard issuing from beneath a table, murmuring diligently to itself, "penna, a pen ; pennae, of a pen." Amid the laughter of the family she crawled from her hiding place and running to her father, said : " I want to learn. Latin ; please let me be a boy." The school of Haddington, her native place (a large market town twenty miles east of Edinburgh), was but a short distance from her father's house, and thither she was soon afterward permitted to go, attired, as Carlyle tells us, in a light blue pelisse, black belt, dainty little cap, caught up with a feather, and her satchel carried in her hand. " Fill that little figure with elastic intellect, love, and generous vivacity of all kinds," he adds, " and where in nature will you find a prettier ? " The little lady's vivacity and generosity were both soon displayed to her school-fellows. The boys and girls usually said their lessons in separate rooms, but arith- metic and algebra they recited together. Most of the boys were devoted to her, but now and then difficulties arose, due, perhaps, to her so easily surpassing them all. Once, when the master had left the room, one of them said something disagreeable to her ; instantly her temper was aroused, and doubling up her little fist she struck him on the nose and made it bleed. At that moment the master returned and demanded to know who had been fighting. There was silence. Fighting was punished with flogging, and no one would tell tales of a girl. The teacher
