en, bore the expression of general amiability. He was the
eldest son in a large young family, and was being educated at one of
the best public schools. He did not, it must be confessed, think
either small beer or small beans of himself; and as to the beer and
beans that his family thought of him, I think it was pale ale and
kidney-beans at least.

Young Hopeful had, however, his weak points like the rest of us; and
perhaps one of the weakest was the difficulty he found in amusing
himself without _bothering_ other people. He had quite a monomania for
proposing the most troublesome "larks" at the most inconvenient
moments; and if his plans were thwarted, an AEolian harp is cheerful
compared to the tone in which, arguing and lamenting, he

"Fought his battles o'er again,"

to the distraction of every occupied member of the household.

When the lords of the creation of all ages can find nothing else to
do, they generally take to eating and drinking; and so it came to pass
that our hero had set his mind upon brewing a jorum of punch, and
sipping it with an accompaniment of mince-pies; and Paterfamilias had
not been quietly settled to his writing for half-an-hour, when he was
disturbed by an application for the necessary ingredients. These he
had refused, quietly explaining that he could not afford to waste his
French brandy, etc., in school-boy cookery, and ending with, "You see
the reason, my dear boy?"

To which the dear boy replied as above, and concluded with the
disrespectful (not to say ungrateful) hint, "Old Brown never blows up
about that sort of thing; he likes Adolphus to enjoy himself in the
holidays."

Whereupon Paterfamilias made answer, in the mildly deprecating tone in
which the elder sometimes do answer the younger in these topsy-turvy
days:--

"That's quite a different case. Don't you see, my boy, that Adolphus
Brown is an only son, and you have nine brothers and sisters? If you
have punch and mince-meat to play with, there is no reason why Tom
should not have it, and James, and Edward, and William, and Benjamin,
and Jack. And then there are your sisters. Twice the amount of the
Browns' mince-meat would not serve you. I like you to enjoy yourself
in the holidays as much as young Brown or anybody; but you must
remember that I send you boys to good schools, and give you all the
substantial comforts and advantages in my power; and the Christmas
bills are very heavy, and I have a great many calls on my