and go a cruise in
his own toy-schooner? Surely all these are practical questions to a
neophyte entering upon life with a view to play. Precision upon such a
point, the child can understand. But if you merely ask him of his past
behaviour, as to who threw such a stone, for instance, or struck such
and such a match; or whether he had looked into a parcel or gone by a
forbidden path,--why, he can see no moment in the inquiry, and it is ten
to one he has already half forgotten and half bemused himself with
subsequent imaginings.

It would be easy to leave them in their native cloudland, where they
figure so prettily--pretty like flowers and innocent like dogs. They
will come out of their gardens soon enough, and have to go into offices
and the witness-box. Spare them yet a while, O conscientious parent! Let
them doze among their playthings yet a little! for who knows what a
rough, warfaring existence lies before them in the future?

X

WALKING TOURS

It must not be imagined that a walking tour, as some would have us
fancy, is merely a better or worse way of seeing the country. There are
many ways of seeing landscape quite as good; and none more vivid, in
spite of canting dilettantes, than from a railway train. But landscape
on a walking tour is quite accessory. He who is indeed of the
brotherhood does not voyage in quest of the picturesque, but of certain
jolly humours--of the hope and spirit with which the march begins at
morning, and the peace and spiritual repletion of the evening's rest. He
cannot tell whether he puts his knapsack on, or takes it off, with more
delight. The excitement of the departure puts him in key for that of the
arrival. Whatever he does is not only a reward in itself, but will be
further rewarded in the sequel; and so pleasure leads on to pleasure in
an endless chain. It is this that so few can understand; they will
either be always lounging or always at five miles an hour; they do not
play off the one against the other, prepare all day for the evening, and
all evening for the next day. And, above all, it is here that your
over-walker fails of comprehension. His heart rises against those who
drink their curacoa in liqueur-glasses, when he himself can swill it in
a brown John. He will not believe that the flavour is more delicate in
the smaller dose. He will not believe that to walk this unconscionable
distance is merely