father's dwelling; and no wonder that his ears thrilled to
hear the carol of the birds, for they had previously been accustomed
chiefly to the voices of poultry and pigs, and to the caterwauling of
the "chet."

But as every joy has its alloy, so our youthful traveller's feelings
began to be modified by a gnawing sensation of hunger, as his usual hour
for breakfast approached. Still he wandered on manfully, looking into
various dark and deep holes with much interest and a good deal of awe.
Some of the old shafts were so deep that no bottom could be seen; others
were partially filled up, and varied from five to twenty feet in depth.
Some were nearly perpendicular, others were sloped and irregular in
form; but all were more or less fringed with gorse bushes in full bloom.
In a few cases the old pits were concealed by these bushes.

It is almost unnecessary to say that baby Maggot's progress, on that
eventful morn, was--unknown to himself--a series of narrow escapes from
beginning to end--no not exactly to the end, for his last adventure
could scarcely be deemed an escape. He was standing on the edge of a
hole, which was partially concealed by bushes. Endeavouring to peer
into it he lost his balance and fell forward. His ready hands grasped
the gorse and received innumerable punctures, which drew forth a loud
cry. Head foremost he went in, and head foremost he went down full ten
feet, when a small bush caught him, and lowered him gently to the
ground, but the spot on which he was landed was steep; it sloped towards
the bottom of the hole, which turned inwards and became a sort of
cavern. Struggling to regain his footing, he slipped and rolled
violently to the bottom, where he lay for a few minutes either stunned
or too much astonished to move. Then he recovered a little and began to
whimper. After which he felt so much better that he arose and attempted
to get out of the hole, but slipped and fell back again, whereupon he
set up a hideous roar which continued without intermission for a quarter
of an hour, when he fell sound asleep, and remained in happy
unconsciousness for several hours.

Meanwhile the Maggot family was, as may well be believed, thrown into a
state of tremendous agitation. Mrs Maggot, on making the discovery
that baby had succeeded in scaling the barricade, huddled on her
garments and roused her progeny to assist in the search. At first she
was not alarmed, believing that she should certainly f