But the children did not want society. To small infantine gaieties they
were unaccustomed. They were all in all to each other. I do not suppose
that there ever was a family more tenderly bound to each other. Maria
read the newspapers, and reported intelligence to her younger sisters
which it is wonderful they could take an interest in. But I suspect that
they had no "children's books," and that their eager minds "browzed
undisturbed among the wholesome pasturage of English literature," as
Charles Lamb expresses it. The servants of the household appear to have
been much impressed with the little Brontes' extraordinary cleverness. In
a letter which I had from him on this subject, their father writes:--"The
servants often said that they had never seen such a clever little child"
(as Charlotte), "and that they were obliged to be on their guard as to
what they said and did before her. Yet she and the servants always lived
on good terms with each other."
These servants are yet alive; elderly women residing in Bradford. They
retain a faithful and fond recollection of Charlotte, and speak of her
unvarying kindness from the "time when she was ever such a little child!"
when she would not rest till she had got the old disused cradle sent from
the parsonage to the house where the parents of one of them lived, to
serve for a little infant sister.
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