"Well, ain't I a sabbath-breaker, for bein' born a-Sunday? But, mamma, I didn't mean to—I'm sure I didn't."
No. 258. A desirable Parentage.—A crowd of dirty, ragged little creatures were loitering about the large show-window of a confectionery-shop. "O my! don't I wish he was my father!" said a little barefooted girl, with her fist in her mouth. Was her sincerity to be doubted?
No. 259. Not to be mealy-mouthed.—"I dare say when you get back to mamma, Charlie, my boy, she'll have a nice present for you. What would you like best, Charlie? a little brother, or a little sister?" "Well now, Uncle George," after considering awhile, "if it makes no difference to Ma, I'd rather have a pony."
No. 260. High-school Training.—"I say, Ma! do you know what the pyro—pyro—pyrotechnical remedy is, for a crying baby?" said a little miss of thirteen, with cherry lips and roguish eyes.
"Gracious goodness me! no; I never heard of such a thing."
"Well, ma—it's rock-it!"
No. 261. School Exercises.—"Well, Maggie, what do they do at school?" "They whips me." "And then what do you do?" "I tingle, skeam, and dance." Another group of three were questioned. The oldest said, "He had to get grammar, arithmetic, geography," etc., etc. The second, that he "got readin', spellin', and diffinitions." "And what do you get my little man?"—to Master Jack, who happened just then to be spearing the cat with a wooden sword. "Oh, I gets lots—I gets readin', and spellin', and spankin'; and then I gets up in the mornin'—sometimes."
No. 262. Childish Inferences.—"Come now, children, speak up! What is it that makes the sea, salt?" "Codfish!" screamed a boy from a distant corner of the room; "Codfish!" as if he were crying the article to a Down-East population, Saturday morning.
No. 263. Great Forbearance.—"O, Ma," said a little creature, who had been allowed to stay at communion for the first time, "what do you think! a man went round with a plateful of money, and offered it to everybody in our pew; but I didn't take any."
No. 264. A gentle rebuke for the Earl of ——, a pompous and niggardly gentleman, who personally superintends the dairy where he lives, and actually sells the milk to the children with his own hands.