at
Skratdj and his wife would not make fools of themselves.

So it went on, however; and so, I suppose it goes on still, for not
many bad habits are cured in middle age.

On certain questions of comparative speaking their views were never
identical. Such as the temperature being hot or cold, things being
light or dark, the apple-tarts being sweet or sour. So one day Mr.
Skratdj came into the room, rubbing his hands, and planting himself at
the fire with "Bitterly cold it is to-day, to be sure."

"Why, my dear William," said Mrs. Skratdj, "I'm sure you must have got
a cold; I feel a fire quite oppressive myself."

"You were wishing you'd a seal-skin jacket yesterday, when it wasn't
half as cold as it is to-day," said Mr. Skratdj.

"My dear William! Why, the children were shivering the whole day, and
the wind was in the north."

"Due east, Mrs. Skratdj."

"I know by the smoke," said Mrs. Skratdj, softly but decidedly.

"I fancy I can tell an east wind when I feel it," said Mr. Skratdj,
jocosely, to the company.

"I told Jemima to look at the weathercock," murmured Mrs. Skratdj.

"I don't care a fig for Jemima," said her husband.

On another occasion Mrs. Skratdj and a lady friend were conversing.

... "We met him at the Smiths'--a gentlemanlike agreeable man, about
forty," said Mrs. Skratdj, in reference to some matter interesting to
both ladies.

"Not a day over thirty-five," said Mr. Skratdj, from behind his
newspaper.

"Why, my dear William, his hair's grey," said Mrs. Skratdj.

"Plenty of men are grey at thirty," said Mr. Skratdj. "I knew a man
who was grey at twenty-five."

"Well, forty or thirty-five, it doesn't much matter," said Mrs.
Skratdj, about to resume her narration.

"Five years matters a good deal to most people at thirty-five," said
Mr. Skratdj, as he walked towards the door. "They would make a
remarkable difference to me, I know;" and with a jocular air Mr.
Skratdj departed, and Mrs. Skratdj had the rest of the anecdote her
own way.

THE LITTLE SKRATDJS.

The Spirit of Contradiction finds a place in most nurseries, though to
a very varying degree in different ones. Children snap and snarl by
nature, like young puppies; and most of us can remember taking part in
some such spirited dialogues as the following:--

{"I will."
{"You can't."

{"You shall."
{"I won't."

{"You daren't."
{"I dare."

{"I'll tell Mamma."
{"I don't care if you do."

It is the part of wise parents