of the children of other people. So Mr.
and Mrs. Strutt opened an "Academy for Young Ladies and Gentlemen" at
Kentish Town; and, as good fortune would have it, they were soon
intrusted with the care of half-a-dozen "boarders," who brought their
own forks and spoons, and were the children of very genteel parents, at
least so Mrs. Strutt told her visitors.

One thing must be said, that both master and mistress were very kind and
attentive to their young charges; and if they did not teach them much,
it was simply because they did not know how.

One fine summer's afternoon they all went together for a ramble in the
Highgate Fields. The elder Master Hawke took his drum, and the younger
had Mrs. Strutt's parasol; Miss Duckling's two brother's had a kite and
a boat; and Charley Lighthair a whirligig. They flew the kite high up
till they could hardly see it, and sent card-messengers of every colour
up to it: they swam their boat in the pond; and when it sailed beyond
their reach, Mr. Strutt pulled it back with his walking-cane: they ran
races across the meadows, and tried to see who could get over the stiles
first; and then when they were hot and tired, they all sat under the
shade of the great elm-trees, and Mr. Strutt told them the following
anecdote:--

"Many years ago, as I was passing through the country town where I
lived, my attention was drawn to a great crowd of people assembled round
some apparently very amusing objects. Led by curiosity, I mixed in with
them; and what did I behold but a fellow whom I had long known, named
Bruin, teaching a monkey to perform all kinds of tricks? The animal
stood on his head, and, with his hind feet, threw sticks up into the
air; then he leaped on Mr. Bruin's head, and balanced himself on one
hand, and jumped over the heads of the spectators; among whom, I
remember, were my neighbours, Mrs. Kangaroo and her daughter; my
shoemaker, old Pidgeon, and his little girl; Shark the lawyer; Mrs.
Whinchat the milliner; a fellow named Ratt, who had been twenty times
taken up for thieving; and the poulterer's son, Bill Goose. I wish you
had been with them to have seen how Bruin made Jocko the monkey dance,
and how all these folks laughed. They capered about finely to get out of
his way; but at last Jocko jumped from his master's head on to Mrs.
Whinchat's back, tore off her bonnet, and in two seconds put it on the
head of little Miss Kangaroo. Oh, how the crowd shouted! Bruin tried to
beat the