i8o OCCASIONAL HAPPY THOUGHTS. 



liolding himself up as a beautiful example for my imitation. 

 " Look at me," he seems to say. "I'm twice as ill as you are, 

 yet /don't give in, like you do. /don't lie down and moan 

 as yoit do. I don't send for a doctor merely for a cough or a 

 cold." 



I am silent. He doesn't understand me, and he doesn't 

 really know what it is for a healthy man to be ill. If he is 

 always unhealthy, it is his normal state, and he is accustomed 

 to it. Besides, I am engaged on a book, Queries of Hu- 

 inanity, which requires brain-work. Boodells is not so en- 

 gaged. On the contrary, he has nothing to do but to roam 

 about his garden, ask the Head Gardener " What's up } " 

 order the Assistant Gardener to move a shrub from the left 

 corner to the right corner, ascertain (for himself) what may 

 be the temperature of the Orchid-house, look in, through a 

 sort of peep-show window in the hive, to see how the bees 

 are getting on, feed a couple of plethoric ducks, look over a 

 gate (in safety) at a suspicious cow, and, once in so many 

 years, drag the pond. Generally speaking, I should call Jiis 

 drain-work, as contrasting with mine, i.e., brain-work. 



As for Milburd, I dread his coming, as he takes a comic 

 viev/ of every ailment ; he, also, means to " cheer me up." 



When he does come, however, he is veiy sympathetic — at 

 first. Gradually, becoming accustomed to my complaints, 

 he is inclined to suggest comic, or, rather, pantomimic 

 remedies. He proposes the red-hot poker to begin with. 

 Seeing the warming-pan in the room, he can't refrain from 

 going through such "comic business," he calls it, " as old 

 Payne would do if he had a cold in the opening of a panto- 



