46 APRIL 



said. He will bring out and exhibit with pride the 

 little badges which Sterculus has never set eyes 

 upon the miniature penny portrait of the latest 

 military hero, and the white bone disc bearing the 

 inscription, " May I. C. U. home, my dear?" which 

 he attaches to his buttonhole on Sundays and 

 holidays, to the envy of less fortunate children. 

 He will let you see that he regards you as an ally 

 defensive against Sterculus, who in the matter of 

 an occasional "day off" has sometimes to be en- 

 countered and defeated, he maintaining that garden 

 boys " didn't ought to want no holidays." In short 

 he will prove to you that the garden boy is as well 

 worthy of study as the spider or the ant, or even 

 the monkey, which he is sometimes supposed to 

 resemble, and that you have neglected a means of 

 investigating an interesting side of human nature 

 until you have made his intimate acquaintance. 



Garden boys are full of ambition. I never knew 

 one who was not determined to get to the top of 

 some tree or another not a garden tree as a rule. 

 Our present boy, when he is eighteen nearly four 

 years hence will go into the Army and rapidly 

 become a general of artillery. The last was deter- 

 mined to be a successful pirate, but has now settled 

 down to assist his father in hawking bloaters. 

 " You can get about and see the world nicely that 

 way," he says. The one immediately preceding 

 him was almost more than a boy when he left us, 

 and it was only under a species of compulsion, 

 when I had pointed out the inadequacy of five 

 shillings a week for a young man of eighteen and 

 insisted that I should find him a more lucrative 



