80 men. FAMILIAR LONDON How the ludicrous is sometimes blended with the serious! An English officer lost his leg at the battle of Vittoria, and, after suffering the agonies of amputation with the greatest courage, said to his servant, who was pretending to cry in the corner of the room, "None of your hypocritical tears, you rascal! You know you are very glad, for now you will have only one boot to clean instead of two!" It has been a great pleasure to me to use children as my models or rather subjects. Generally they are good and patient. It is very amusing to watch the boys-the sturdy man gradually developing, perhaps into a great citizen, and the little girls too, with their love of finery and almost always the strong indications of motherliness, even in the smallest of them, in their devotion to ragged dolls, but more especially to the baby of the family. I often think of what their lives will be. Will the little coquette lead on some loving heart to be her slave, and then, like the butterfly she is, fly off to some other flower-and at last die an old maid? Will that lad fight his way with courage through the world, or will some sorrow or some sin mar his life and drag him down to misery and death? God help them all! |