eveals itself in the work: "What I expect to do in my
holidays is the greater part of the time to mind the baby. Two years and
a half old. Just old enough to run into a puddle or to fall downstairs.
Oh! what a glorious occupation, my aunt or Sunday-school teacher would
say. But it is all very well for them; they ought to have a turn with
him. I am going to have a game at tying doors, tying bundles of mud
in paper, and then drop it on the pavement. I shall buy a bundle of
wood and tie a piece of cord to it, and when some one goes to pick
it up, lo! it has vanished--not lost, but gone before. I shall go
butterfly-catching, and catch some fish at Snob's Brighton (Lea Bridge).
I shall finish up by having a whacking, tearing my breeches, giving a
boy two black eyes, and then wake up on Monday morning refreshed and
quite happy to make the acquaintance of Mr.----'s cane."

Dr. M. quotes the following as well--the genuineness of which he also
guarantees:--"Man goes fishing, takes his rod and enough tackle to make
a telegraph wire, and starts on his piscatorial expedition. He arrives,
and happy man is he if he has not forgot something, a hook, his bait, or
his float. He sits there, apparently contented; he catches a frog or
some other fine specimen of natural history, and a cold, and a jolly
good roasting from his bitter (_sic_) half, when he arrives with some
mackerel which he had bought at the fish-monger's. He, poor man, did not
know that they were sea-fish, but his wife did. When juveniles go
fishing, they take a willow, their ma's reel of best six cord, a pickle
jar, and a few worms, and proceed to the New River quite happy. When
they arrive they catch about fifty (a small thousand, they call it), and
are thinking of returning home, when a gent, with N.R. on his hat, and a
good ash stick in his hand, comes up, ''Ullo, there,' says he, 'what are
you doing there?' 'Fishing, sir,' answer they meekly. The man then takes
away their fish and rod, and gives them some whales instead (on their
back). And they return home sadder but wiser boys."

I can vouch myself for the genuineness of the next example, recently
copied _verbatim_ from the original manuscript in the possession of a
friend in the teaching profession in Glasgow. The general subject had
been "Athletic Sports," and a boy wrote:--"Athletic sports is very
useful football especially it strengthens the mussles all sports is good
for the helth for some people I think the bes