10 



CHRISTMAS NUMBER AND ALMANAC 



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cast hero. Having knocked timidly, he asked still more 

 timidly for something to eat, a liit of liread will do ; and will 

 they tell him the way home. The servant-girl looks thunder 

 and lightning at Harry ; the foi-mcrfrom her frown, the latter 

 from her eyes ; and goes straight to her mistress with — 

 "Please, mum, here's a young gent — leastways he ought to 

 be a young gent by his clothes — who wants some food and to 

 be sliowu his way; but, mum, I thinks it's a boy them 

 Lunnun thieves has brought (Jack was a-saying in the 

 kitchen, he saw a lad who saw a lad what told him they was 

 coming to the races) to put through the dairy windy, when 

 they will break into the house ; and he 's come to find how 

 the front door be fastened. Please, mum, may I set the dog 

 on the young varmint ? " 



The mistress stared, the company stared, too j for it had 

 been said before all assembled. The farmer muttered a 

 " bother the girl !" and went to investig.ite m.atters himself; 

 and l>eing a better judge of character than the damsel, and 

 being moreover in a very good humour, he soon saw how it 

 was and brought the boy in. " Why, Harry, wherever are 

 you come from ? " said a gentlemanly-looking, flaxen-haired, 

 middle-aged man, with florid complexion and bright kind 

 eye — a surgeon all over. " Oh, Mr. Ciist, I am so thankful 

 to see you." This Mr. Cust was Harry's father's great sur- 

 gical chum (for, by-the-way, doctors in the same town hate 

 each other like vipers ; 'tis terrible how they quarrel some- 

 times, and their wives oftener). A few words of explanation 

 follow and Harrj* is welcomed at the table. " Now, my lad," 

 said the farmer, "tuck into that goose, or shall it be turkey, 

 or fowl, or pigeon-pie? None of your butcher's meat for me, 

 young gentleman ; none of your mutton from sheep that died 

 of their own accord ; I 'm a poultry fancier, that I am — ha, 

 ha, ha ! " and the farmer laughed, and as he laughed one lost 

 sight of his eyes ; and his bald crown seemed to laugh, too, 

 so bright did it look as his head shook. Harry ate and was 

 thankful. " Well," said the farmer, " I was just going to tell 

 you about that brood of duckmngs ; well, 1 was done again, 

 only two cocks out of eleven eggs. But the old woman shall 

 never pick her eggs again : it shall be guess work, it shall ; 

 she knows what eggs will hatch pullets well enough, and my 

 bargain was, she to have the pullets, and bring up the young 

 cocks for me ; but she shall never pick her eggs again, not 

 she," and then the farmer laughed one of his glorious laughs. 



Mr. Cust had tmce looked at his watch, and — thoughtful 

 man — family man he was, too — he began to think of the 

 anxiety which Harrj-'s mother would feel as night came on 

 and he not appearing. "Come, doctor, you must not go yet, 

 I want to show you my new fowl-houses. Fowls are looked 

 down upon now ; but mark my word, if the cattle should 

 ever run short and meat be dear, then the value of fowls will 

 be learnt. Poultry are looked down upon as poor paying 

 stock, but I can prove they do pay, and may be made to pay 

 by anybody." "I can't stay longer, Mr. Summerly; I can't 

 see your new houses to-night ; indeed, I have staid too long 

 already ; but I drove round to see my old patient, your good 

 wife, for I heard she had been ill. Ah, Mr. Summerly, you 

 did me a good turn when I was in ])ractice nearer you, and I 

 lio])e 1 feel grateful. Why, dear me ! here 's my young friend 

 fast asleep." Harry had been caught nodding. The doctor's 

 gig (there were no dog-carts in those days, and four wheels 

 would have speedily been two wheels on rough fen roads) 

 was soon at the door, and Harry tucked in comfortably and 

 invited to come again, " and the girl shan't set the dog on 

 you, or take you for a young thief," said the fanner slily. 



On they drove, Harry blessing his stars that he haddone 

 with skating and walking for that day, and in an hom- or so 

 he was deposited at his father's door. Maternal anxiety is 

 now over, and Mr. Cust thanked ; and Han-y is soon in bed 

 and fast asleep, as his mother had seen before she left him. 

 She had stood and listened to the steadily drawn breath, and 

 looked on the closed eyes — "tired eyelids lying upon tired 

 eyes" — and she had admired the lioy's auburn curls as they lay 

 crushed up on the white pillow; and she blessed him, her 

 only boy left, and thanked the God :\ho had brought him 

 home safely. 



Harry slept and dreamed — no, boys seldom dream — with 

 them it is one long sleep from five minutes after getting into 

 bed to five minutes before getting up. 



Wiltshire Rectok. 



THE GOOD OF OUR PETS. 



E like the term Natural His- 

 tory for the study of aniniiil 

 life. It is a natural study, 

 and almost I'rom the earliest 

 ' periods of our lives wc have 

 recollections of some pets. 

 We do not believe the child 

 first catches the fly for the 

 sake of pulling oft" its wings; 

 it is for the sake of possessing 

 something weaker than itself 

 — something it can patronize 

 and protect ; then, having 

 caught it, it plays with its 

 sulijcct just as the cat does 

 with a mouse. Did you ever 

 notice this last operation narrowly without, in imagination, 

 becoming the victim of some generous lion or cruel tiger? 

 " I have seen," says an Eastern traveller, " the lion take a 

 small ox, jump a high fence with him, throw him over his 

 back, and go otT with him without an effort." A man who 

 was rescued from a tiger descriljes the animal as having taken 

 him through the shoulder, and carried him easily into the 

 jungle, stopping every now and then, and " purring " round 

 him like a cat. Just look at the cat as he enters the room 

 with a mouse in his mouth. See him ^vith his tail erect ; notice 

 the dignity of his step; and, .arrived at the spot he meant to 

 reach, see him deposit the poor panting animal between his 

 paws. He allows it to run away till close to a refuge, then 

 all the spirit is aroused, and he bounds after it, returning 

 triumphant. Then he pretends to have lost it ; then he lies 

 down on it. If it becomes faint he gives it a small bite in a 

 non-vital p.art ; and when all power ceases, then he eats it. 

 Fancy two hours in a jungle, " far removed from noise and 

 smoke," under similar circumstances. 



The almost infant catches the fly, and loves the dog, cat, 

 bird, or other domestic animal. 



The eminent philanthropist, Charles Sturge, has an insti- 

 tution near Birmingham for the purpose of reclaiming convict 

 boys. Many of these are very Pariahs, workhouse boys, 

 English Bedouins. There are many such in London. Those 

 who are in the habit of rising very early can tell of these 

 white sons of Ishmael : how they sleep under the dry arches 

 of the bridges, the porticos of churches, the covered doorways 

 of large houses, and the clumps of evergreens in the Green 

 Park. Many may have admired the lieautiful engraving of 

 the stag rising from his lair : the vigour and truthfulness of 

 the uplifted head and open nostril, snnfBng in the fresh 

 morning breeze ; the partially curved back, preparatory to 

 the stretch that shall restore the cramped limbs to their free- 

 dom ; and his breakfast u-aiting for him. Did they ever 

 imagine these cockney Arabs, as they emerge from their lairs — 

 growing, healthy, hungry boys. They st.and erect and stretch; 

 they shake the rags that serve for clothing, they go to the 

 nearest pump and wash, and then they look around them. 

 They are right hungry, but they have no breakfast waiting. 

 It is a trying position to have a good hard-working, natural 

 appetite, and nothing to satisfy it. It is difficult to under- 

 stand oPiC like this in a metropolis overflowing with wealth 

 and food, all kept from him. We are afraid it is not hard to 

 imagine that such an one, who has never had a kind word 

 spoken to him in his life, should think little of a society that 

 seems only to spurn him. He wakes, and is hungry, but has 

 nothing to eat. It is not the figurative nothing of the sys- 

 tLinatic, who have their hot-water punctually at half-past 

 seven, and breakfast on the table at eight — only toast and 

 bread-and-butter, and cold beef; not an egg nor a broil ; 

 positively nothing for breakfast ! Every day that our young 

 Arab prowls about the streets in search of breakfast he be- 

 comes more and more hardened ; he does not dread prison, 

 as he is there clothed and fed Prison is the result of stealing, 

 but by stealing he can pacify his hunger, and he does so. 

 lie is not careful to escape ; and in this class are found the 

 youthful cynics, who quiz the judge while he passes sentence, 

 and ask for increase of punishment. He goes to prison, only 

 to become worse. It is no exaggeration to say many of these 



