The Governor took her in his arms,
saying, as her mother related to her, 'Poor little baby! is it so ill?'
'When the other children teased me,'--Olive Schreiner had her triumph
from the incident--'I could say to them, "Ah, but you were not held in
the arms of Sir George Grey;" and that was safe to bring about an
increased respect on their part towards me.'
Taking his walks in Kensington Gardens, Sir George would make friendships
among the small people whose nursery coaches are there the swell of a
thoroughfare. On the second occasion of meeting he might be expected,
with a fine show of mystery, to produce a toy from his pocket. 'It's so
easy,' he remarked, 'to convert these gardens into a fairy-land for some
child whose name you only know because the nurse told it you.' Then, a
favourite would not be met one day, or the next, and Sir George would
feel a blank in his walk.
At his own fireside, a girlie with rosy, dimpled cheeks, straightway made
him her subject, by the simple trust with which she took his out-
stretched hand, cuddled on to his knee, and sat enthroned. She confirmed
a victory, that he regarded as all his, in a most faithful treatment of
tea-cakes, protesting at every mouthful, 'Oh, no, I sha'n't be ill; I
_won't_ be ill!'
It had been the same when Sir George was among the Aborigines of
Australia, for the children promptly made friends with him.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35