ill prevent it being said he does exactly the same.
For instance, if you give a little select supper party in your study to
two friends off roast potatoes and sardines, he will probably have three
friends to breakfast off eggs and bread and jam; or if you hang up the
portraits of your father and sister over your mantelpiece, he will
suspend the likenesses of his mother and brother on his wall. He
generally, you will find, tries to improve on you--which, of course, is
not always hard to do. But sometimes he comes to grief in the attempt,
as happened in the case of his wonderful "hanging shelves." Ted Hammer,
quite a mechanical genius, had made to himself a set of these shelves,
which for neatness, simplicity, and usefulness were the marvel of the
school. Of course Ebby got to know of it, and was unhappy till he could
cap it with something finer still. So he made all sorts of excuses for
coming constantly into Ted's room and inspecting his work of art, till
at last he felt quite sure he could make a set for himself. So he
started to manufacture a set, twice the size, and with double the number
of shelves. In due time he had it done and suspended on his wall, and
it seemed as if Ted's nose was completely out of joint, for Ebby's
shelves held not only his books, but his jam-pots and tumblers, and all
sorts of odds and ends besides. But that very night there was a crash
in his room, the like of which had never been heard before. We all
rushed to the place. There were books, jam pots, ink pots, tumblers, in
one glorious state of smash on the floor, and the unlucky shelves on the
top of them; for Ebenezer had driven the small nail that supported the
structure into nothing better than ordinary loose plaster. The only
wonder was how the thing stayed up two minutes. So Ted Hammer's nose
was not out of joint after all.

This reminds us of the story of the two rival shoemakers, who lived
opposite one another, and always strove each to outdo the other in every
branch of their trade. One day, one of the two painted over his door
the highly appropriate Latin motto, "Mens conscia recti." His neighbour
gnashed his teeth, of course, and vowed to improve on the inscription.
And next day, when cobbler Number 1 and the world awoke, they beheld
painted in huge characters over the fellow's shop-front the startling
announcement, "_Men's and Women's_ conscia recti."

It is the easiest thing possible (where the operator is not quit