"This habit of 'making out' interests for themselves that most children get who have none in actual life, was very strong in her.
The whole family used to 'make out' histories, and invent characters and events. I told her sometimes they were like growing potatoes in a cellar. She said, sadly, 'Yes! I know we are!'
"Some one at school said she 'was always talking about clever people; Johnson, Sheridan, &c.' She said, 'Now you don't know the meaning of CLEVER, Sheridan might be clever; yes, Sheridan was clever,--scamps often are; but Johnson hadn't a spark of cleverality in him.' No one appreciated the opinion; they made some trivial remark about 'CLEVERALITY,' and she said no more.
"This is the epitome of her life. At our house she had just as little chance of a patient hearing, for though not school-girlish, we were more intolerant. We had a rage for practicality, and laughed all poetry to scorn. Neither she nor we had any idea but that our opinions were the opinions of all the SENSIBLE people in the world, and we used to astonish each other at every sentence . . . Charlotte, at school, had no plan of life beyond what circumstances made for her. She knew that she must provide for herself, and chose her trade; at least chose to begin it once.
Her idea of self-improvement ruled her even at school. It was to cultivate her tastes. She always said there was enough of hard practicality and USEFUL knowledge forced on us by necessity, and that the thing most needed was to soften and refine our minds.