life is crowded with disappointments. The foe was looking
incredibly small, and young, and meek, a puny thing for a man to
wreak his vengeance on. With long lashes cast down, making a deep
shadow on his thin cheeks, he sat wrestling with his portion, from
which the cleverest manipulation of knife and fork was powerless to
extract an inch of nourishment. As he gave up the struggle at last,
with unmoved countenance, and not even a sigh of complaint, my heart
failed me. I felt that I had snatched bread from the mouth of starving
infanthood. Had not Joseph learned from Innocentina that the boy had
lately recovered from a severe illness? Unspeakable brat that he was,
and small favour that he deserved at my hands, I resolved that he
should have the best of the next dish when it came round.

This good intention, however, went to supply another stone in that
place which seems ever in need of repaving. Cheese succeeded the veal,
a well-meaning but somewhat overpowering cheese, and neither the Brat
nor I encouraged it. It was borne away, intact, and after a short
delay appeared a dish of plums, with another of small and attractive
cakes, evidently imported from a town.

I saw the boy's eye brighten as it fell upon the cakes. He glanced
from them to me, as I was offered my choice, and said hastily: "There
is one cake there which I want very much. I suppose if I tell you
which it is, you will eat it."

"There is also only one which I care for," said I. "I wonder if it's
the same?"

"Probably," said the boy. "If you take it, there isn't another which I
would be found dead with in my mouth, on a desert island. And I
haven't had much dinner."

"_I_ had to wash under the pump," said I. "Still, greatness lies in
magnanimity. You shall choose your cake first; but remember, you
cannot have it, and eat it, too; so make up your mind quickly which is
better."

"I always thought that a stupid saying," remarked the Brat, as he
helped himself to a ginger-nut with pink icing. "I have my cake, and
when I have eaten it, I take another."

"Your experience in life has been fortunate," I replied, contenting
myself with the second-best cake. "But it has not been long. When you
are a man----"

"A man! I would rather die--young than grow up to be one."

"Indeed?" I exclaimed, surprised at this outburst.

"I hate men."

"Ah, perhaps then, your experience has not been as fortunate in men as
in cakes."

"No, it hasn't. It has been just th