442. To Sara Hutchinson Address: Miss S. Hutchins[on] | Gallow Hill | Wykeham | [Malto[n] | Yorksh[ire] MS. Dove Cottage. Hitherto unpublished fragment. [Early Summer 1802] . . . The [dear] Children are both well. Derwent, if I have re[mained] a long time without noticing him, comes to me, & says -- Tiss! -He is such an angel! -- Some time ago I watched Hartley under the Trees, down by the River -- the Birds singing so sweetly above him / & he was evidently lost in thought. I went down, & asked him what his Thoughts were-so he hugged me, & said after a while 'I thought, how I love the sweet Birds, & the Flowers, & Derwent, and Thinking; & how I hate Reading, & being wise, & being Good.' -- Does not this remind you of 'the pretty Boy' in my Foster Mother's Tale 2 -- in the L.B. -- . . . ____________________ 1 This and the following fragment belong to 1802, before the birth of Sara. 2 Cf. lines 28-35: And so the babe grew up a pretty boy, A pretty boy, but most unteachable -And never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead, But knew the names of birds, and mock'd their notes, And whistled, as he were a bird himself: And all the autumn 'twas his only play To get the seeds of wild flowers, and to plant them With earth and water, on the stumps of trees. -804-