ad
and otherwise enjoying himself--was yet not to be despised, as he soon
discovered, when he was learning to walk.

It was one of the few things he could grasp firmly, without its
immediately sliding away, doubling up, turning head over heels, or
otherwise throwing him violently down on the brick floor of the
kitchen--before he knew what had happened to him!

Granny Pyetangle frequently went to have a chat with Dame Fossie, her
large sun-bonnet shading her wrinkled old face, a handkerchief crossed
neatly over her print bodice. On these occasions 'Zekiel accompanied
his grandmother, hanging on to her skirts affectionately with one
hand, whilst he waved a crust of brown bread in the other--a crust
which he generally carried concealed about his person, for the
two-fold purpose of assisting through his teeth and amusing himself at
every convenient opportunity.

Whilst Granny Pyetangle discussed the affairs of the neighbours,
'Zekiel would sit on the floor by her side contentedly sucking his
crust, and looking with awe upon the contents of the shop. Such a
collection of good things seemed a perfect fairy-tale to him, and he
would often settle in his own mind what he would have when he grew up
and had pence to rattle about in his trousers' pocket, like Eli and
Hercules Colfox.

Like most children in short petticoats, who--contrary to the
generally-received idea--are constantly meditating on every subject
that comes under their notice; 'Zekiel had his own ideas about Granny
Pyetangle and her friend Dame Fossie.

His grandmother ought to have spent more of her money on
peppermint-cushions, tin trumpets, and whip-tops, and less on those
uninteresting household stores; and Dame Fossie should have remembered
that crusts are poor work when brandy-snaps and gingerbread are spread
before you, and ought more frequently to have bestowed a biscuit on
the round-eyed 'Zekiel, as he played with the cat, or poked pieces of
stick between the cracks of the floor when Granny Pyetangle wasn't
looking.

Though 'Zekiel had no brothers and sisters, he had a great many
friends, the chief of which were Eli and Hercules Colfox, his next
door neighbours, who were very kind and condescending to him in spite
of the dignity of their corduroy trousers.

'Zekiel had a way of ingratiating himself with everyone, and of
getting what he wanted, that inspired the slower-witted Eli and
Hercules with awe and admiration; until one day he took it into hi