There were better cricketers, better
football players, better hands at setting a night-line, better
swimmers than Clem, but he could do something, and do it well, in all
these departments. He generally took up a thing with much eagerness
for a time, and then let it drop. He was foremost in introducing new
games and new fashions, which he permitted to flourish for a time,
and then superseded. As he grew up he displayed a taste for drawing
and music. He was soon able to copy little paintings of flowers, or
even little country scenes, and to play a piece of no very great
difficulty with tolerable effect. But as he never was taught by a
master, and never practised elementary exercises and studies, he was
deficient in accuracy. When the question came what was to be done
with him after he left school, his father naturally wished him to go
into the mill. Clem, however, set his face steadily against this
project, and his mother, who was a believer in his genius, supported
him. He actually wanted to go to the University, a thing unheard of
in those days amongst our people; but this was not possible, and
after dangling about for some time at home, he obtained the post of
usher in a school, an occupation which he considered more congenial
and intellectual than that of grinding flour.
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