ing the air bland
and grateful. Pet hounds were gamboling about the room, and games and
toys of every description were scattered all about in the greatest
profusion. A stuffed chair, on rollers, was near the boy, and a garden
chair stood upon the steps, ready for immediate use, and every thing
around seemed fitted to minister to a diseased body and a capricious
will. The lad drew pettishly away from the caress of his fond mother, as
he replied,

"It isn't of any use to do any thing at all for me; there's no
happiness, anyhow! Why couldn't I have been like other boys, and not so
ugly as to have to hive myself up here all the time for fear of
ridicule?" and he threw his head back upon the cool hair pillows and
murmured something which his mother did not hear, excepting that the
last word was die. She had often heard the wicked wish that his life
might not be prolonged; but how to lead him from the constant
contemplation of his deformity so as to make him resigned, if not
cheerful, had, as yet, been an unavailing study.

The pampering the luxurious tastes and propensities of her son had only
fostered in him a craving and dissatisfied spirit, and engendered the
feeling that every thing was to bend to his demands however foolish or
extravagant. It was a pitiable sight! that gentle and fond mother vainly
giving every energy to the effort to soothe and interest her son, while
he, seemingly unconscious of her unwearied exertions, turned petulantly
from all her kindness and love, and buried himself in gloom and
fretfulness. "This thing is intolerably hot!" said he, as he threw back
the collar of his fine white linen tunic, and bared his throat to the
breeze that came faintly through the open windows; "I haven't felt
comfortable to-day, and the night promises nothing better." Mrs. Lincoln
took a broad fan from the mantle, and, seating herself by the youth,
pushed aside the heavy hair from his brow and quietly fanned him, while
she tried to draw his thoughts away from himself, and fix them upon
something pleasing and instructive; but the mood was perverse, and she
was about to despair when two little feet came patting through the hall,
and Kittie Fay burst suddenly into the room.

"Oh! Willie," said she, bounding up to the couch, and kissing her cousin
twenty times over; "you've no idea what a beautiful home you have, and
what a happy boy you are! only think, I've seen somebody, just now, that
had just such a thing on his back