CHAPTER VI 



MANURES 



I OPENED noiselessly the other morning, that I 

 might enjoy a father s gladness, the door of a room 

 in which my little boy, ' six off/ was at his play. 

 Under the table, walled round by every available 

 chair, with a fire-screen for the front door, and a 

 music-stool, inverted atop to represent the main stack 

 of chimneys, he was evidently entertaining a beloved 

 and honoured guest. The banquet had just com- 

 menced, and the courteous host was recommending 

 to his distinguished visitor (a very large and hand- 

 some black retriever, by name ' Colonel the viands 

 before him. These viands, upon a cursory glance 

 through the chair-legs, did not strike me as of an 

 appetising or digestible character — the two pieces de 

 resistance consisting of a leg-rest and a small coal- 

 scuttle, and the side dishes being specimens of the 

 first Atlantic Telegraph Cable, presented to me by 

 Sir Charles Bright, with a selection of exploded 

 cartridges, sea-shells, ninepins, buttons, marbles, and 



82 



