82 LONG LAKE. 



and the difficulties I encountered when courting her. 

 She was a demure little schoolma'am, as pretty as a 

 peach, just seventeen years old, and the eldest of 

 a family of sixteen brothers and sisters, all of whom 

 had come into the world with unfailing annual reg- 

 ularity. Her ma and pa were great people for fried 

 chicken, and it was their practice to let the seven 

 or eight younger members of the family lie around 

 the floor, gnawing a greasy drumstick or dirty wing 

 bone to keep them quiet until their turn came at the 

 table. Whenever I visited my charmer these kids 

 were the terror of my life; for it is needless to state 

 I always wore my best Sunday clothes, and it cam 

 rnacy was required to keep my trousers unspotted 

 and pet the youngsters at the same time. The chil- 

 dren were of an affectionate disposition, very fond 

 of me, and used to select my knees as the vantage 

 ground on which to discover hidden morsels of gristly 

 sweetness. 



I confided my troubles to a particular chum of mine, 

 one Toby Snuffles by name, and he generously offered 

 to keep me company, wearing a suit for the occa- 

 sion, and to amuse the kids while I talked sweet 

 nothings to my inamorata. He was a chuckle-headed, 

 pan-faced and most uninteresting individual, entirely 

 lacking in the refined ^disposition and intellectual at- 

 tainments which I possessed; yet, strange to say, on 

 his first appearance the young lady treated my fur- 

 ther attentions with cold disdain, and before the even- 

 ing was fairly over had unblushingly appointed my 

 rival as her future daily escort from the schoolhouse 

 to her home. Toby eventually married her. He was 

 a gardener by occupation, working at Squire Brown's. 

 The Squire was a noted horticulturist and most of 

 Toby's work was on the Squire's flower beds. 



When Toby asked the old man's consent to marry 

 his daughter, he made up his mind to attempt it in 

 a neat little figurative speech of his own, and getting 

 the old man into a merry mood one evening, took the 



