I will tell you an anecdote about Mrs. Hannah More, when she was eighty
years old. A widow and her little son paid a visit to Mrs. More, at
Barley Wood. When they were about to leave, Mrs. M. stooped to kiss the
little boy, not as a mere compliment, as old maidens usually kiss
children, but she took his smiling face between her two hands, and
looked upon it a moment as a mother would, then kissed it fondly more
than once. "Now when you are a man, my child, will you remember me?" The
little boy had just been eating some cake which she gave him, and he,
instead of giving her any answer, glanced his eyes on the remnants of
the cake which lay on the table. "Well," said Mrs. M., "you will
remember the cake at Barley Wood, wont you?" "Yes," said the boy, "It
was nice cake, and you are _so kind_ that I will remember both." "That
is right," she replied, "I like to have the young remember me for _being
kind_--then you will remember old Mrs. Hannah More?"
"Always, ma'am, I'll try to remember you always." "What a good child,"
said she, after his mother was gone, "and of good stock; that child will
be true as steel. It was so much more natural that the child should
remember the cake than an old woman, that I love his sincerity." She
died on the 7th of Sept., 1833, aged eighty-eight. She was buried in
Wrighton churchyard, beneath an old tree which is still flourishing.