CHAP. I.] LOVE OF ANIMALS SHOWN. 5 



With cricket or other amusements of schoolboys my father 

 never meddled. In after-life he never entered into such recreation 

 as billiards, backgammon, or whist, or any other game. Strange 

 though it may seem, yet he was ignorant of any of the games 

 belonging to cards, and not only did he not know their names, 

 but he was also totally ignorant of the names of the cards 

 themselves. 



While he was a schoolboy, as at other periods of his life, he 

 was extremely fond of animals and birds. Not many days before 

 my father's death, an old schoolfellow of his came to see him, and he 

 talked with him about the innumerable rabbits in hutches simple 

 contrivances, all made by young Alfred Smee that he used to go 

 and see in a court of the Bank, between the hours of school. 

 Here it should be stated, that from early boyhood my father 

 showed a great aptitude for carpentry. A few old boxes, and 

 a few pieces of wood, nails, a saw, gimlet, hammer, and a few 

 of the like common implements, were sufficient for him to 

 make many ingenious contrivances. We have still an old table 

 that had a fractured leg, which was bound up and mended by 

 him when he was but a boy of eight years old, and I think 

 even an indifferent person would admit that a grown-up man, or 

 even a carpenter, could scarcely have done the job better. 



Besides keeping innumerable rabbits at the Bank, he used 

 also to keep some pigeons. In one of the anecdotes in ' Instinct 

 and Season,' he relates how he once, on leaving London for some 

 days, left the birds in charge of a servant. Upon returning, the 

 first question naturally asked was, as to the health of the favourite 

 birds. 



But (says he) I received the startling answer, " Lor', indeed, sir, I never 

 once thought of them." Their fate seemed inevitable ; and up I ran to the 

 dovecot, to confirm, as I thought, my worst fears. To my astonishment, 

 however, all the birds were in good health. The young ones looked fat, and 

 the old ones had built new nests, although not a particle of food nor a drop 

 of water was to be found. As the birds had done so long without food and 

 water, I thought they could not hurt by waiting a little longer, and there- 

 fore I determined to see what they did. After a little time the birds 

 became uneasy, and, after pluming their feathers, they all flew off. I 

 watched them as far as the eye could reach, and I could trace them beyond 

 Shoreditch Church ; and after an hour and a half they came back. There 

 is no doubt that they had flown off to the fields for food, and thus were not 

 the least the worse for the servant's inattention. 



Besides pigeons and rabbits, young Smee had, when a boy, 

 other pets. One of these was a magpie, who u*ed to be allowed 



