174 THE HOESE AND HIS EIDER. 



mewling, &c., in its nurse's arms," so of the childhood 

 of Tom Smith the only occurrence we are enabled to 

 record is that his mother, one day, found him lying on 

 his nurse's lap, gasping like a tench just landed from a 

 pond. 



" What's the matter with the child?" she eagerly in- 

 quired. 



" Nothing replied the calm nurse; "he's doing 

 nicely" 



As regarded the present tense, this answer was the 

 truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Had, 

 t however, the question been " What has been the matter 

 with him ?" with the same grammatical accuracy the 

 reply would have been, " If you please, Ma'am, he has 

 just thrown up a large pin," which, unperceived, he 

 had managed to swallow. 



On his reaching the second age of man that is to say, 

 when he was but seven years old he was sent " with 

 his satchel and shining morning face " to Eton, where, 

 on his arrival, he found himself the youngest boy in the 

 school. 



The busyjiive of the United Kingdom, we all know, 

 is divided into cells, in each of which, at this moment, 

 a raw material is being converted by labour into some 

 particular description of manufactured goods. In one 

 cell, a Minister of State is concocting, from crude evi- 



