o elephant
was ever more sluggish in his motions; but when coupled--professionally
speaking--to his own tender infant, John knew no bounds, his wife knew
no rest and his baby knew no higher earthly bliss.

Sometimes it was on his shoulder, sometimes on his head and often on his
foot, riding with railway speed to "Banbury Cross." Again it was on its
back in the crib or on the bed being tickled into fits of laughter,
which bid fair at times to merge into fits of convulsion, to the horror
of little Gertie, who came in for a large share of that delightful
holiday's enjoyment, but whose spirit was frequently harrowed with alarm
at the riotous conduct of her invalid father. In his glee the man might
have been compared to a locomotive with a bad driver, who was constantly
shutting off the steam and clapping on the brakes too soon or too late,
thus either falling short of or overshooting his mark. What between the
door and the dresser, the fire, the crib, the window, and the furniture,
John showed himself a dreadfully bad pilot and was constantly running
into or backing out of difficulties. At last towards the afternoon of
that day, while performing a furious charge round the room with baby on
his head, he overturned the wash-tub, which filled the baby with
delirious joy, and Gertie with pleasurable alarm.

As for Mrs Marrot, she was too happy to have her husband at home for a
whole day to care much about trifles, nevertheless she felt it her duty
to reprove him, lest the children should learn a bad lesson.

"There now, John, I knew you'd do it at last. You're much too violent,
and you shouldn't ought to risk the baby's neck in that way. Such a
mess! How _can_ you expect me to keep things tidy if you go on so?"

John was very penitent. He did not reply at first, but putting baby
into the crib--where it instantly drowned with a great yell the shriek
of a passing train--he went down on his knees and began to "swab" up the
water with a jack-towel. Loo ran laughingly from the corner where she
had been sewing, and insisted on doing it for him.

"You'll hurt your leg, father, if you bend it so, and I'm sure it must
be swelled and pained enough already with so much romping."

"Not a bit, Loo," objected John. "It was me as caused the mess, an'
justice requires that I should swab it up. There, go sew that sentiment
into a sampler an' hang it up over yer bed."

But Loo would not give in. While they were still engaged in