THE LOVE-CHILD. 



[Continued from page 640, No 90.] 



IT was one of the happiest moments of my life. Lavolta the 

 magnificent Lavolta, spangled from top to toe, a king of the fairies 

 on a large scale, the supreme lord of Mr. Mountebank, had told me, 

 on pushing me down the narrow passage from his platform, to con- 

 sider myself a member of his troop. I had attained the zenith of 

 human felicity Fortune could do no more for me I had not a 

 wish. 



The passage was horribly dark, circuitous, and queer. I did not 

 know what to make of it. Sometimes I had to feel my way down 

 two or three steep stairs, then, after groping along a few feet of level 

 floor, to climb up a ricketty ladder ; it seemed to be destitute of 

 plan without any fixed principle. The architect, as I conceived, had 

 rendered it as difficult as possible, for what reason I could not exactly 

 understand. Presently I heard footsteps ; somebody was rapidly 

 careering over the course on which I had been crawling like a snail. 

 I stood on the prong of a ladder ; I was descending, but to what 

 depth I knew not. I looked down, but all below me was dark and 

 terrible. The unknown intruder on my solitude came on like a 

 thunderbolt. For a moment I thought of getting out of his way by 

 dropping into the abyss; but just as he had familiarly clutched the 

 upper part of the ladder, a sudden thought struck me that I had 

 better twist myself underneath, and allow the gentleman to pass. I 

 did so ; but the consequences were by no means propitious. He 

 thought proper to slide, not to run down the ladder, and I, hoping to 

 avoid any unpleasant collision, had unfortunately left the cross bars 

 clear, and clung with my hands and feet to the two uprights, so that 

 he carried me down with him in his descent, and at such a prodigious 

 rate, that the wood seemed to be red hot iron in my hands. I con- 

 trived to clutch him by his leg before we reached the bottom ; and 

 this so threw him off his guard, that he lost his hold, and down we 

 came together in the most disagreeable manner imaginable. The 

 instant we alighted on terra firma the wretch began to punch my 

 ribs, and I, in self-defence, took a large mouthful of his hard calf 

 betwixt my teeth, and bit so vigorously under his infliction a flogged 

 soldier has been known to flatten a bullet that he not only desisted, 

 but roared like a calf. By his voice, I recognized him as Mr. Merry- 

 man. Relinquishing my grip, I ran up to the little platform above 

 with all possible speed, and tried to lift the ladder, so as to cut off 

 my enemy from the possibility of pursuit, but in vain it proved 

 too heavy for me ; for, though I could bite like a badger, I was still 

 a mere child in physical power; there was no precocious development 

 about me, except, perhaps^ in the muscles of my nether jaw : but all 

 boys can bite most fearfully too if, as old women say on other 

 acquirements, they only give their minds to it. At that period of my 



