The hymn being rehearsed, or rather half-chanted, in a little singing voice, Graham would take exceptions at the manner, and proceed to give a lesson in recitation. She was quick in learning, apt in imitating; and, besides, her pleasure was to please Graham: she proved a ready scholar. To the hymn would succeed some reading⁠—perhaps a chapter in the Bible; correction was seldom required here, for the child could read any simple narrative chapter very well; and, when the subject was such as she could understand and take an interest in, her expression and emphasis were something remarkable. Joseph cast into the pit; the calling of Samuel; Daniel in the lions’ den⁠—these were favourite passages: of the first especially she seemed perfectly to feel the pathos.

“Poor Jacob!” she would sometimes say, with quivering lips. “How he loved his son Joseph! As much,” she once added⁠—“as much, Graham, as I love you: if you were to die” (and she reopened the book, sought the verse, and read), “I should ‘refuse to be comforted, and go down into the grave to you mourning.’ ”