Page:Life of Octavia Hill as told in her letters.djvu/242

 220 LIFE OF OCTAVIA HILL CHAP. be sold with five cottages, in a very populous district near us, and a large house and pretty garden besides. Kuskin has bought it, and it is this which just now is taking every thought and power that is available, to plan and bring into order. I dare not tell anyone the difficulty of this. When it is over, I may venture to speak of it ; now I should lose hope and courage if I dwelt on it much. . . . We have made eighteen additional rooms available for the poor, and have given orders for four cottages, which are Ruskin's, but still in the hands of the middlemen, to be thoroughly repaired .... The children seen to have so few joys, and to spring to meet any suggestion of employment with such eagerness, instead of fighting and sitting in the gutter, with dirty faces and listless vacant expression. I found an eager little crowd threading beads, last time I was in the playground. We hope to get some tiny gardens there ; and Ruskin has promised some seats. I hope to teach them to draw a little ; singing we have already introduced. On the whole, I am so thankful, so glad, so hopeful in it all ; and, when I remember the old days when I seemed so powerless, I am almost awed. Everything is so lovely here. Dear Miss Sterling ! is it not like her to give us all the opportunity for such a rest ? About 1865. To MR. RUSKIN. This place may be considered as fairly started on a remunerative plan. I daresay you will be as pleased as I that this is so. I told the tenants how difficult I found it to pay for all the use of the money, an expense that they never realise ; and explained how the less they broke