< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu
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CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL.
room, Alexander," [her third brother] "went with many others to follow their relatives for some miles, to take a last look. I found myself now with my mother, alone in a room all in confusion, in one corner of which my little brother Dietrich lay in his cradle; my tears flowed, like my mother's, but neither of us could speak. I snatched a large handkerchief of my father's from a chair, and took a stool to place it at my mother's feet, on which I sat down, and put into her hands one corner of the handkerchief, reserving the opposite one for myself. This little action actually drew a momentary smile into her face."

They were gone a year, and of this period of separation she gives no recollections; but in her account of their welcome home we see how affectionate she was and how neglected she felt, and the kind treatment of her brother William could not fail to make a deep impression upon her susceptible nature:

"My mother, being very busy in preparing dinner, had suffered me to go all alone to the parade to meet my father, but I could not find him anywhere, nor anybody whom I knew ; so at last, when nearly frozen to death, I came home and found them all at table. My dear brother William threw down his knife and fork and ran to welcome, and crouched down to me, which made me forget all my grievances. The rest were so happy at seeing one another again that my absence had never been perceived."

In 1757 it became apparent that William had not the strength to stay in the Guards in war time, and his parents, with no small difficulty, sent him away to England.

When very young, Caroline went to the garrison school till three in the afternoon, and then to another school to be taught knitting. From the time she was six or seven years old, she says:

"I was fully employed in providing my brothers with stockings, and remember that the first pair for Alexander touched the floor when I stood upright, finishing the front. Besides this my pen was frequently in requisition for writing, not only my mother's letters to my father, but many a poor soldier's wife in our neighborhood to her husband in camp."

From 1757 till 1760 there is another gap in the record, several pages having been torn from her manuscript belonging to this period. In 1760 her father came home for good, broken in health and worn out with hardships, and we are again furnished with some details of the family history. He devoted himself for the rest of his life to the musical education of his children, and gave lessons besides to the numerous pupils who sought his instruction. Next to her brother William, her father was the object of her dearest love. She was her mother's companion and, assistant, and, as the income was straitened, they together did all the housework. The mother was a diligent spinner, and kept the family well stocked with household linen. Her sister had not a patient temper, and was sometimes left, with her goods and chattels, to be taken care of by her mother. As to Jacob, who was often at home, and who developed into a dandy while in England, she speaks of him as follows:

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