THE NUTCRACKERS OF NUTCRACKER LODGE. 21 



good-will to all, that he never could be made to under- 

 stand that any of his relations could want to cut him ; 

 and therefore Featherhead looked down on him with con- 

 tempt, and said he had no tact, and could n't see when 

 he was not wanted. 



It was wonderful to see how, by means of persisting in 

 remarks like these, young Featherhead at last got all his 

 family to look up to him as something uncommon. Though 

 he added nothing to the family, and required more to be 

 done for him than all the others put together, though he 

 showed not the smallest real perseverance or ability in any- 

 thing useful, yet somehow all his brothers and sisters, 

 and his poor foolish old mother, got into a way of regard- 

 ing him as something wonderful, and delighting in his 

 sharp sayings as if they had been the wisest things in the 

 world. 



But at last old papa declared that it was time for Feath- 

 erhead to settle himself to some business in life, roundly 

 declaring that he could not always have him as a hanger- 

 on in the paternal hole. 



"What are you going to do, my boy?" said Tip Chip- 

 munk to him one day. "We are driving now a thriving 

 trade in hickory-nuts, and if you would like to join us " 



" Thank you," said Featherhead ; " but I confess I have 

 no fancy for anything so slow as the hickory trade ; I 

 never was made to grub and delve in that way." 



