In the issue of general culture and attainments, we children stood on quite even footing. True, it was always the case that one of us would be picked at random, inexplicably, and without regard to his own preferences to struggle with the inflections of some idiotic language that was long since dead; meanwhile, another, from some fancied artistic tendency that always failed to justify itself, might be told off without warning to hammer out scales and exercises, and to bedew the pointless keys with wet tears of exhaustion or indignation.
However, neither would have cared to be the best in areas that were common to both sexes and considered important even for someone whose ambitions did not go beyond cracking whips in circus rings, such as geography, mathematics, or the tiresome activities of kings and queens. Indeed, despite the differences in our individual talents, we were all held at a largely similar dead level—one of ignorance tempered by disobedience.
Scottish-born Edinburgh native Kenneth Grahame was a British author who lived from 8 March 1859 to 6 July 1932. His most well-known works were The Reluctant Dragon and The Wind in the Willows (1908), both classics of children's literature. His mother died from scarlet fever when he was five years old, and his father was a sheriff's replacement. It is believed that the author was influenced by the setting of The Wind in the Willows. In 1879, Grahame received a job assignment at the Bank of England. He advanced through the ranks until taking a medical retirement as its Secretary in 1908. Three bullets were fired at Grahame, but none of them hit him. He was driven into retirement, reportedly for health reasons. In 1899, Grahame wed Elspeth Thomson, a woman who was Robert William Thomson's daughter. Alastair (also known as "Mouse"), the couple's only child, was born blind in one eye and had other medical issues. In 1920, Grahame's son took his own life on a railway line. When author Kenneth Grahame died in 1932, he left behind a legacy that would forever make childhood and literature more blessed. At Holywell Cemetery in Oxford, he was buried next to his son Alastair in the same cemetery as his wife Elspeth.
