74 ALONGSHORE " 



pleasant dream, bends forward graciously, and 

 just touches our noses with hers, like a leaf in 

 a light air; then buries her face in her mother's 

 breast and gurgles. If 'gentry-people' take 

 notice of her upon the beach, and chatter baby- 

 talk for a kiss, she refuses with kicks and head- 

 turnings and digs of her small sharp nails; but 

 afterwards, relenting, she inclines her nose 

 towards theirs, and the smile she does it 

 with, sly humorous smile, enchants them 

 altogether. 



Everybody's baby possesses at least one good 

 quality which raises it far above anybody else's 

 baby whatsoever. Defects and superiorities are, 

 indeed, the same thing in babies, and the tragedy 

 of their growing up is the way their little exhibi- 

 tions of intelligence become, without change in 

 nature, big exhibitions of naughtiness. That 

 amusing touchiness of yours. Semaphore, will 

 one day be simply wicked temper. Your fine 

 appetite will be greediness in a year or two's 

 time, and when you make a wry face at food 

 you don't like, your mother, instead of cudd- 

 ling you to her, will exclaim, 'Cawdy little 

 cat! You shan't hae nort.' Sic transit gloria 

 infantiae. 



