"Did Uncle Barnes resemble papa much, as a boy?" inquired Ida.
"Your uncle was of a very different temperament," replied mamma; "he was as gay and loquacious as your papa was silent and abstracted. He was very fond of reading and of study, but he lacked your papa's perseverance; he was more awake to the outer world and its distractions, whereas brother Horace was oblivious to everything else, when he once held a book in his hand.
"I have told you what a splendid voice your grandfather had. Brother Barnes was the only one of the five children who inherited it, and with it a very quick ear for music. I remember hearing mother say, that when he was three and four years old, he was often called upon to sing for our friends, who not unfrequently rewarded his talent with presents; however, at the time when his voice changed, it completely lost its musical qualities, to our great regret.
"As he grew older, he developed a taste for argument, that would have done him good service had he been able to follow out his darling project of becoming a lawyer; indeed, as it was, he was always called upon, unprofessionally, to settle the neighbors' disputes, and was renowned for making all the love-matches of the neighborhood. In his reading he had rather a peculiar taste; he delighted in theological and controversial books, and I never knew any one who was more thoroughly acquainted with the Bible. He could not only give the precise chapter and verse from which any text was taken, but was able to detect the slightest verbal error in the quotation.
"He had a passion for preaching, and although unordained, was always ready to deliver a sermon whenever he could find a vacant church and an audience.
"Every one in America has heard of your papa's benevolent disposition, and the amount he used to spend in private charities. Your Uncle Barnes was, if possible, more generous. I have known him to part with his last dollar to relieve another from want or embarrassment, and this was not done through weakness or inability to refuse, but from a genuine impulse of sympathy with those in need.
"I am very proud to say of my only surviving brother, that although he has never had the advantage of a good education, he has lived to the age of sixty without indulging in tobacco, wine, or profane language, and has brought up his boys in the same temperate habits."
"How many children has Uncle Barnes, Aunt Esther?" inquired Ida. "I have, I think, seen only three."
"There are ten living," replied mamma. "Brother Barnes, you know, has been twice married. His first wife was a woman of fine character, but became, soon after her marriage, a confirmed invalid, and brother Barnes' constant attention and care of her during her years of illness was almost unparalleled for devotion.
"Victoria is the oldest of the children: she was a very bright, clever little girl, and a great pet with mother, as she was the first grandchild born at home. Sister Arminda's children, living at some distance, were not so available for instruction, and in that occupation consisted mother's happiness. She taught Victoria to read when she was two years and a half old, and I remember seeing her stand, a few years later, at mother's knee, reading one of Hans Christian Andersen's stories, with the tears streaming down her cheeks at the pathos—a proof of appreciation that delighted mother's heart.