hat it was very
smooth and a perfect white. The cake no sooner was come home from baking
than the cook put on her things, and carried it to school.

When Henry first saw it, he jumped up and down like any Merry Andrew. He
was not so patient as to wait till they could let him have a knife, but
fell upon it tooth and nail. He ate and ate till school began, and after
school was over he ate again; at night, too, it was the same thing till
bedtime--nay, a little fellow that Henry had for a playmate told me that
he put the cake upon his bolster when he went to bed, and waked and
waked a dozen times, that he might take a bit. I cannot so easily
believe this last particular; but, then, it is very true, at least, that
on the morrow, when the day was hardly broke, he set about his favourite
business once again, continuing at it all the morning, and by noon had
eaten it up. The dinner-bell now rung; but Henry, as one may fancy, had
no stomach, and was vexed to see how heartily the other children ate. It
was, however, worse than this at five o'clock, when school was over.

His companions asked him if he would not play at cricket, tan, or kits.
Alas! he could not; so they played without him. In the meantime Henry
could hardly stand upon his legs; he went and sat down in a corner very
gloomily, while the children said one to another: 'What is the matter
with poor Henry, who used to skip about and be so merry? See how pale
and sorrowful he is!'

The master came himself, and, seeing him, was quite alarmed. It was all
lost labour to interrogate him. Henry could not be brought to speak a
single word.

By great good luck, a boy at length came forward in the secret; and his
information was that Henry's mother had sent him a great cake the day
before, which he had swallowed in an instant, as it were, and that his
present sickness was occasioned only by his gluttony. On this, the
master sent for an apothecary, who ordered him a quantity of physic,
phial after phial. Henry, as one would fancy, found it very nauseous,
but was forced to take the whole for fear of dying, which, had he
omitted it, would certainly have been the case. When some few days of
physic and strict regimen had passed, his health was re-established as
before; but his mother protested that she would never let him have
another cake.

_Percival._ He did not merit so much as the smell of such a thing. But
this is but one cake, father; and you informed me that there were th