OUR FOUR-HANDED RELATIVES. 



2 9 



dren by these symptoms of distress : they loosened his 

 chain-strap an inch or two, but happily took the precau- 



tion to shut the 

 house-door and 

 the cellar-gate. 

 But they had 

 forgotten the 

 poultry-house ; 

 and when the 

 lady returned 

 in the evening 

 her sixteen 

 hens had been 

 converted into 

 Platonic homunculi, " bipeds without feathers and with- 

 out the power of volitation." On another occasion he 

 came near setting the house on fire by drenching the 

 cat with the contents of a large kitchen-lamp. Still, 

 after trying sundry other four-handers, the lady declined 



TOTAL DEPRAVITY. 



