258 Extract* from the Note-Book of Gregory Greathead, Esq. 



to mind the aversion which over distinguishes the minds of truly 

 great men witness Byron, Rousseau, Gait, Sir Egerton Brydges, and 

 others to lay themselves open to the charge of vanity or egotism. 



Doubtless, however, the indulgence with which the labours of 

 autobiographers have been received by the world, encouraged Mr. 

 Greathead to persevere in his projected work, and in presenting it 

 to the public, the editor feels assured that its playful minuteness, and 

 still more, the affectionate fondness with which the author dwells 

 upon the pleasant reminiscences of his boyish days, will be sufficient 

 to command both admiration and respect. 



CHOICE OF A SCHOOL. 



" THAT boy has a head," said my father, who had sat some time 

 leaning his own upon his hand, and now looked up with the satisfied 

 air of a man who has made a sudden and important discovery. 



" So I have often told you, Mr. G.," calmly replied my mother, 

 whose feminine quickness of observation had, it seems, hitherto failed 

 to convince that male injustice which sometimes wilfully blinds itself 

 to an object merely because it is not the first to perceive it. 



" There is something in it too," continued my father in a musing 

 tone. 



" So I have often told you, Mr. G." 



"Have you, rny dear? and when?" 



" Often often Mr. G., and surely you must have observed, 

 yourself, that not a week has passed since Gregory's last birth-day 

 (he was seven, you know) without some proof of his active and en- 

 quiring disposition. Don't you recollect his letting out Amy's pet 

 bullfinch, which she had had two years, to see if it would at once 

 acquire its old habits of wildness? Don't you remember his experi- 

 ment with the cat and the parachute, and the train of gunpowder he 

 had laid under the door of his aunt's dressing-room when she had a 

 dreadful headache, thinking that the sudden fright might do her 

 good ? Don't youVecollect " 



"Well well my dear, the hereditary ingenuity of the Great- 

 heads will lose nothing in him ; but still care is needed youthful 

 talents must not run to waste ; time is short, Gregory is seven, he 

 must go to school." 



" School !" screamed my mother, " when where why how ?" 



" Immediately, wherever we can find a fit place, because he is too 

 clever for home, in a post-chaise," replied my father, categorically. 



" But, my dear," remonstrated my mother 



At this inauspicious moment was I the unconscious subject of 

 debate revealed in one of the distant garden walks, indulging my 

 fancy for experimental philosophy, by attaching a small cracker to 

 the gown of the nursery-maid, who was attending rny little sister 

 Amy, the unlucky owner of the emancipated bullfinch. The cracker, 

 partaking of my impatience, exploded somewhat unadvisedly, burned 

 my fingers severely, and frightened poor Amy out of her wits. 

 There is a tide in the affairs of boys as well as men, and this ill-timed 

 experiment gave a new and decided turn to the discussion in the 

 drawing-room. & 



