198 



HARD WICKE ' S S CIENCE- G SSIP. 



with my own eyes a performance quite as extra- 

 ordinary as that of either the rjig or the python :— in 

 fact the very feat that our supposed showman was 

 making so much noise about at the entrance of his 

 yellow show. 



You will observe, my dear reader, the comical- 

 looking gentleman who sits facing you below (Fig. 

 108). Well, it is a performance of his that I 

 refer to. This gentleman actually did walk out of 

 his skin ; and I watched him with my own eyes make 

 a nice, square, comfortable meal of it afterwards. I 

 believe it is very rude to stare at a person who is 

 eating, but I could not help staring at him. He did 

 not seem to mind it, however ; indeed he made no 

 more of what he was doing than if it were a matter 

 of everyday occurrence. Yet it was an extraordinary 

 spectacle. If I had seen a boy who had just stepped 



upon tidiness, and in particular may have impressed 

 upon him as an important rule, " Whenever you 

 have done with an article of dress, fold it up and put 

 it away ; " and if this were so, it is evident that in 

 his innocence he had misunderstood the injunction, 

 and thought reference was made to the common 

 method amongst his relations of putting things away. 

 I mean (to use a vulgarism) "putting them away" 

 where the green poplar leaves disappeared — -"down 

 the red lane," or rather, green lane ; for their " red 

 lane," though ever ready, was never red. 



No, I cannot say that I was agreeably impressed 

 with the look of the gentleman at first sight. He 

 seemed to me to wear rather too sanctimonious, 

 " meekly-do-my-dooty " an expression for a straight- 

 forward, hungry, honest-minded, caterpillar. It is 

 true I did not know at the time that it was. a meal 



Fig. 108. 



out of his nightshirt quietly sit down on the carpet 

 and commence to make his breakfast off it, I do not 

 think I could have been much more astonished. 



When I first observed my friend he was sitting as 

 you see him sitting now ; bolt upright, with the skin 

 (out of which he had just scrambled) before him on 

 the leaf, turned partly inside out, and lying — as I 

 have sometimes seen night-dresses lying about the 

 floor in an untidy boys' dormitory — just as he had 

 stepped out of it. He was not, however, of the 

 untidy sort, though he had never had the advantage 

 of a mother's training, poor little chap ! for he had 

 been left an orphan very early in life, and the 

 youngest member of a large young family of thirteen, 

 totally unprovided for, and entirely dependent upon 

 their own exertions. 



It is possible, however, that one of his elder 

 brothers or sisters may have given him a few lessons 



that was spread before him ; but even if I had, I do 

 not know that I should have thought any better of 

 him ; for I hate hypocrisy, and for a gross-feeding 

 creature like that to make a pretence of saying a 

 "grace before meat" that took a full half-hour at 

 least to get through, was really rather too much. 

 But his attitude ! His head was bent a little to one 

 side, his arms crossed on his breast, and he was 

 motionless as a stone, as if so utterly absorbed in his 

 devotions, the little Pharisee ! It is uncharitable, 

 perhaps, to say so ; but my firm belief is that it was 

 every bit pretence, and that in reality his mind was 

 all the time wholly engrossed in the contemplation of 

 his own excellences, with a kind of gentle under- 

 current, no doubt, of pleasant anticipation of his 

 coming meal. 



But there is an end to all things; and my friend 

 woke up at last, squared his elbows, and began to 



