all previous raspberry jam from his
boyhood up. While he was in the midst of these rhapsodies, and still
consuming their subject with enthusiasm, my mother, who had taken some
of the jam on her own plate, suddenly made a ghastly discovery. The
jam-pot had been for several days standing in the cupboard with its top
off, or ajar, and an innumerable colony of almost microscopic red ants
had discovered it, and launched themselves fervently upon it and into
it; it had held them fast in its sweet but fatal embrace, and other
myriads had followed their fellows into the same delicious and
destructive abyss. What the precise color of the ants may have been
before they became incorporate with the jam is not known; but as the
case was, they could be distinguished from it only by their voluptuous
struggles in its controlling stickiness. Only the keenest eye could
discern them, and the eyes of Henry Bright were among the most
near-sighted in England. Besides, according to his custom, he was
talking with the utmost volubility all the time.

What was to be done? My father and mother stealthily exchanged an awful
look, and the question was settled. It was too late to recall the
ants which our friend had devoured by tens of thousands. It seemed not
probable that, were he kept in ignorance of his predicament, they
would do him any serious bodily injury; whereas, were he enlightened,
imagination might get in her fatal work. Accordingly, a rigorous silence
upon the subject was maintained, and the dear innocent actually devoured
nearly that whole potful of red ants, accompanying the meal with a
continual psalm of praise of their exquisite flavor; and never till the
day of his death did he suspect what the secret of that flavor was. I
believe the Chinese eat ants and regard them as a luxury. Very likely
they are right; but at that period of my boyhood I had not heard of
this, and then and often afterwards did I meditate with misgivings upon
the predicament of Henry Bright's stomach after his banquet.

VII

Life in Rock Park--Inconvenient independence of lodgings--
The average man--"How many gardeners have you got?"--
Shielded by rose-leaves of culture and refinement--The
English middle class--Prejudice, complacency, and Burke's
Peerage--Never heard of Tennyson or Browning--Satisfaction
in the solid earth--A bond of fellowship--A damp, winding,
verdurous street--The parent of stucco villas--Inacti