One other letter I will give to amuse you. You elder boys will say, that if he hadn’t learnt to answer questions better when he went to school, he would never have taken a high degree at Oxford:—
“January 26th, 1830.
“My dear Mama,
“We thank you for the conundrums you sent us, and I think we have found out two of them:—‘If all the letters were asked out to dinner, which of them would not go?’ The one that asked them would not go. ‘What thing is that which lights the eyes, yet never fails to blind?’ The sun. You must tell us when you write whether these are right or not. We cannot find out the other one. Give my love to papa, and tell him that I will write to him next week. We shall be delighted to see you home again. I think I am going on well with my Latin, and I hope Papa will be satisfied with me.
“I am, your affectionate son,
“George Hughes.”
We went to school together, in the autumn of this year, at Twyford, near Winchester. On the way there we stayed a few days at Lyndhurst, in the New Forest, at the house of an old naval officer. He had another house near us in Berkshire, our favourite resort, as there were several little girls in the family of our own age, all very pretty. One of these little ladies took a fancy to some water-flower, as we were walking in the forest, the day before the school met. Without saying a word, George just jumped into the pond, and fetched it for her; thereby ruining a new suit of clothes (as your grandmother remarked) and risking his life, for there was no one but a nurse with us, and it was just as likely that the pond might be out of his depth as not. However, as it happened, no harm came of it, and we went on next day to Twyford.