left ear in its way upwards. At length the general tumult ceased, and, in the pause occasioned by all the party "taking their breath," the shrill voice of Darling Petkin enunciated, with all the air of a little pagod just come to light, "Yah! on'y nook a' ME!"

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Only look at me!"

How often do we hear this from children; how seldom do we find the claim upon general attention and admiration made in vain! We begin to fear, that where we are fond of a child (and the same principle applies to a pet dog, horse, or favourite of any kind), there is always a natural tendency towards spoiling it a little; that is, towards rendering it vain, exacting, wilful, useless, or disagreeable, by the excess of our manifestations of admiration, and the concessions we make to all its sayings and doings, however capricious and hurtful. Our present business, however, is not so much with the good children, the pretty good, or the not-so-very-good-neither children, but the tip-top specimen of On'y nook" at the portrait!

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The tumult having subsided, the uncles and aunts were enabled to offer a few words of recognition and merry-Christmas-wishing to the two grandmammas, and, at the same time, to perceive that Mr. and Mrs. Meredith (we beg Darling's Petkin's pardon! we mean papa and mamma) had entered the room. The family now commenced a kind and solicitous conversation together, on the various gains, losses, changes, and prospects, which had occurred to each other since they met last Christmas; and this interesting conversation and affectionate intercourse was allowed to continue uninterrupted almost to the extent of fifteen minutes, during the whole of which time Darling Petkin was busily and silently occupied alone, in a distant corner, eating greedy handsful of many-coloured "hundreds and thousands," varied by sundry dips into paper packets brought him by Uncle Ben, containing bulls'-eyes, kisses, hardbake, almond sugar-plums, alicumpane, barley sugar, gingerbread, white sugarcandy, pipe peppermint, lollipop squibs, a quire-and-a-half of parliament, and everlastings. These little tokens of remembrance and affection, without which the giver would have met with a very different reception, were deposited in Darling Petkin's hands by mamma, to go and put away in his own pretty cupboard and drawers, and to take out only a little from each packet every day after dinner.

When the various greetings of the family had been exchanged, Aunt Nancy, looking at her watch, and observing that it wanted half-an-hour of dinner, drew a roll of paper from her pocket, and making a great deal of rustling in unfolding it, besides manifesting a more than usually grave look, she thus produced a silence fraught with expectation, during which she cast an interrogative glance around.

"Oh! do, Aunt Nancy!" exclaimed several voices apparently proceeding from minds previously instructed, or else very rapidly sympathetic; "oh! do read it."

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Pray do!—yes, pray do!" murmured papa and mamma, and several friends of the family. Aunt Nancy bowed her head with an air of self-complacency, which she intended for general respect, and commenced reading :—

"The production of a rational essay on infant education, is at onee an undertaking and an event of the most

Rub-dub-a-dub!-Such were the sounds evidently destined to accompany Aunt Nancy's learned recitative; for Darling Petkin, having eaten hardbake and lollipops till he was nearly sick, suddenly came to the perception that he was no longer an object of interest to the company present, who, instead of being solely occupied with him, were actually going on very well among themselves without him! He, therefore, jumped up, seized his drum, and began to strut knee-foremost round the room, and through the seated party, beating it with all his might, sometimes on the head, sometimes with a "tack-tacking" noise on the tin sides or wooden rim, and bloating out his cheeks and stomach as he ejaculated a "row-de-dow" as semichorus to the "rub-a-dub" of his belaboured instrument. Aunt Nancy's theoretic essay was, therefore, compelled to proceed with an obligato accompaniment on the drum, by the celebrated Darling Petkin.

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"The production of a rational' "—rack, tack-a-tack, dub, dub! -"a rational system of' "-rub!—" infant' "-dub!—" education;' my dearest child! pray stop for only a few minutes!"rub-a-dub-a-dub!" "The production,' I repeat, 'of a rational system of'"-row-de-dow !—“of infant education'-my darling, pray wait a minute!' is at once an undertaking and an event of' " —ti-ti-rub !—“the most'"-ri-tum-dub !—“ 'vital importance.' -Rub-a-dub! a-dub! dub-doo!" It is of most vital importance, not only to one's own country, but to the'"-row-de-dow!" world at large. Instead of the erroneous "-tack-a-rack, a-rack!""methods hitherto practised,' "-row-dow-de-dow!" the profound system I have adopted, of always permitting a child to' "-rub-a-dub, a-dub!" to have its own way in everything' ”—ritum-ti!" is one, easy of accomplishment; and the results are equally' "-rum-ti-tum, ti-tum!" easy to be foreseen.'"-Rowde-dow, de-dow, doodle-doo !"

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"But, as they grow up, there is the'"-rub !—" "there is the'"-rub!"there is'-my dear, sweet child! do, pray be quiet-only one moment!-' there,' I say, is the'"-rub!" in fact, the very greatest' "-dub-a-dub !-"

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necessity that the adult

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should, of its own good' "--row, de-dow, de-dow !"of its own good sense, should see the propriety, as well as prudence, of'' ti-tiddley-ti!" of acting on a totally different plan.' ”—Tack-arack, dub, dub!" My dearest little boy!"-row-de-dow, de-dow, toodle-loo!" poor grandmamma!"-ti-rub!—" her head aches, Darling Pet!"-yah! row-de-dow, de-dow, rub-a-doo!" Oh fie! Uncle Ben!-see! he's got the other drum, to help Darling beat his tattoo!"-Tra! tra-a-a-a, ti-rum! tra, tra-a-a-a-ti-dum !—-rub, dub-a-rub-a-rub, rub-de-doo! tra-a-a-a-a-a-a-rub, dub-a-rub-a-rub, rub-de-doo! hurra-a-a!

It is not very necessary to inform the reader that Aunt Nancy's learned essay on infant education was quite overwhelmed; and the discomfited spinster replaced it in her pocket, with a look expressive of very mixed and confusing thoughts and emotions. "Bless his dear, sweet face!" murmured mamma, "what a colour he has got! -he's so fond of his drum, Aunt Nancy!" Whereupon, everybody in the room, except one personage, uttered some ejaculation of admiration; and Uncle Benjamin, and two of the aunts, ran and covered him with kisses, and then carried him round the room on their crossed arms.

The one personage who did not contribute his voice to the applause of Darling Petkin's performance, was a corpulent, elderly gentleman, who had arrived in his own carriage at the same time as the batch of uncles and aunts, but of whom we have no more been able to take any notice up to the present moment, than were the company assembled. Mr. Scrope Bellyfield had, therefore, sat in pompous silence, with an expression of much disgust and irritation. He was evidently very vain of his great, fat person; and wore a high-crested, rich-curling, dark brown wig, not unlike the head-dress of George IV. Mr. Scrope Bellyfield was, moreover, a great exacter of all sorts of admiration and attention: first, because, to do him justice, he was really a man of superior understanding, education, and great general information; and, secondly, because he possessed immense wealth and influence, and "commanded" the votes of half the "independent freeholders" in his county. For this county, Mr. Meredith was most anxious to be returned to parliament; and, as the day of election was approaching, he had recently sought the friendship and advice of Mr. Scrope Bellyfield, who seemed disposed to exert himself exclusively in his favour. Mr. Meredith, and the whole family, were, consequently, anxious to shew him every attention on the present occasion, although they had not yet been able to find any opportunity, except in helping him to alight from his carriage.

Mr. Meredith had stood rubbing his hands, with an obsequious

preparatory air, beside the arm-chair of Mr. Scrope Bellyfield, during the lecture which had just been drummed into the ears of the party, as though he would fain have entered into some very interesting and deferential conversation; but the corpulent visitor was too irritated, and sat with an expression of assumed abstraction, pretending not to see him.

The dinner bell now resounded from the hall, and the whole party made a show of escorting Mr. Bellyfield, as they adjourned to the dining-room; but somehow or other, it happened that Darling Petkin got in the very centre of the group, and fairly carried off "the attention." They all took their seats at the table, Mr. Bellyfield being placed at the right hand of "mamma," who had Darling Petkin upon her knee. Grandmamma Meredith, it was observed, had not taken her place; whereupon Mr. Meredith informed the family, that she had retired with a bad headache to lie down for an hour or two. "Ah!" murmured mamma, "she has been complaining a good deal of late; the weather, you see, the cold is too much for her; she will be better when she has been bled: John has gone off for Dr. Mayton. Shall I help you to a little soup, Mr. Bellyfield?"

--

"Thank you, madam," replied the great gentleman in a formal voice, bowing his red face almost down into his plate.

"Me, too, mamma !—me, too!"

"Yes, my dear!"—there, love!—I'll just give him a spoonful to begin with: I know Mr. Bellyfield will excuse it."

"Me, mamma! me!"

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Yes, my darling!-bless the child! the sweetmeats have made him so thirsty. Now, Mr. Bellyfield."

"Oh, no sort of hurry, madam!" ejaculated the gentleman; and down went his face again towards his plate, with preposterous courtesy.

It would be too arduous a task to ourselves, and too provocative to our readers, were we to attempt to give a progressive description of the scene which continued through this most trying dinner. During the whole time did the victorious Darling Petkin sit, and persist in sitting, on mamma's knee; interrupting every attempt she made to address anybody but himself; fretfully engrossing all her attention; and, in his unceasing attempts to engross the attention of everybody else, as he had always been permitted to do, thoroughly confusing and defeating all general conversation. The effect upon the spirits of everybody present, mamma and Uncle Ben perhaps excepted, was that of unmitigated and unconquerable exhaustion and disgust. But no one had the "cruelty" to say so; and few of the

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family admitted the fact to themselves. What all the visitors thought, was easy to perceive; what Mr. Bellyfield, in particular, thought and felt, we dare not venture to conjecture. He enjoyed the reputation throughout the country of being an excellent companion in all societies: a man who possessed a fund of anecdote" and urbanity. Certainly, on the present occasion he manifested no signs whatever of anything of the kind. He made no movement, except to eat, and to bow his head when papa and the uncles asked him to do them the honour of taking wine; and he never opened his mouth, except to reply in monosyllables. His face, charged with colour, presented the peculiarly ominous black-redness of long-suppressed breath; his manner was characterised by terrible composure; his silence was like the preliminary pause before the explosion of some capacious mine.

"

We pass over the dinner: the recollection of it has a choking effect. The dessert was placed upon the table; the guests now bethought them of merry Christmas, and were anxious to talk of old times. But there was no doing anything with Darling Petkin in the room, except to listen and admire, or endure and be silent. There he sat, on mamma's knee, who was ready to faint from exhaustion, yet did not possess enough fortitude to send him to bed; there he sat, with his sweetmeats before him, his cheeks, mouth, and chin, begaumed with coloured sugars, tart, cake, and orange, all of which he insisted continually upon having kissed; there he sat, with messed hands, and "sticky" fingers, catching at the contents of every dish in his reach, or that he caused to be brought within his reach; then, flinging the conglomeration about the table, or into the plates of those who were nearest; and, finally, wiping his grimy little paws on mamma's satin dress, or on her cheek, and throat, under pretence of playful fondness.

The crawling clock-hands eventually worked their way into the middle of the fatigued night, and Darling Petkin's eyelids became heavy, as he made the preparatory movement to go to sleep in mamma's arms. It was now thought a little effort might cautiously be made to try and get him up stairs without her, so that she might have half an hour's respite to devote to her guests and family. The little effort was made in the following manner :

"My sweetest!" murmured mamma, pressing the child closer to her bosom; "will my sweetest go to his bed?"

"No, I sarnt-sarnt go-a-bed."

"Aunt Nancy," pursued mamma, "has got a little finger that knows it's time Darling went to his own pretty bed.

what's o'clock?"

Little finger,