Page:Father's memoirs of his child.djvu/71

 exertion, neither diminishing his inclination for active sports, nor trenching upon the puerile tenor of his natural habits.

On the thirtieth of October, 1798, the day on which he attained the age of three years, he wrote a little letter to his mother with a pencil. This was the first occasion of his putting words together in writing. As it now lies before me, I find the forms of the letters to be in general accurate and well-shaped, though their sizes are disproportioned, and the lines, though few, extremely uneven. At the bottom he has written the Arabian numerals in succession, as far as the number 20. There is nothing in this letter to call for its insertion; but I have received another from a lady, which he wrote to her only two months afterwards. This is also in pencil, written much better, and sufficiently strait.