Three generations

A BROTHER'S SYMPATHY 237
musical ear failed to catch up and retain foreign
sounds with facility. I was fairly well read for the
period in English literature and history.
Our claims as a family to ability in art culminated
in my brother, who, when a schoolboy, vindicated the
reputation he had earned in his childhood for cutting
out familiar animals from black-edged paper, by win-
ning the first prize of Shakespeare's plays awarded to
the best drawer and sketcher in the Madras College
in St. Andrews. He continued through life to draw
with much ease and great love of the art. The attain-
ment was useful to him in his profession of civil
engineer, though the necessity of adhering to
mechanical drawing spoilt his hand for any other
kind.
He took the keenest interest in all which concerned
us and the school, and was ready to give hints or make
suggestions to my sister Mary, who shared at a little
distance his drawing faculty and his delight in it, so
that she would draw even when disabled by illness
for any other employment. He was eager in procuring
for us the best modern atlases, of which he could
judge as an excellent geographer. In these particulars
we were not without qualifications which satisfied the
day to which we belonged.
We were four in number teaching in the school, and
our ages ranged from twenty-two to thirty-one.
In the early days of the school my father and mother
could drive over to see us. We had the great pleasure
of welcoming them to our very own house, and they
had the relief and joy of seeing that we could maintain
a comfortable home for ourselves. I mention some-
thing which may encourage those similarly situated,
for a school means much drudgery, not a little wear-