other profession; I wish he
may!"

"I think he has already," said my mother; "you see how fond he is of the
arts, of drawing and painting, and, as far as I can judge, what he has
already done is very respectable; his mind seems quite turned that way,
and I heard him say the other day that he would sooner be a Michael
Angelo than a general officer. But you are always talking of him; what
do you think of doing with the other child?"

"What, indeed!" said my father; "that is a consideration which gives me
no little uneasiness. I am afraid it will be much more difficult to
settle him in life than his brother. What is he fitted for, even were it
in my power to provide for him? God help the child! I bear him no ill
will, on the contrary, all love and affection; but I cannot shut my eyes;
there is something so strange about him! How he behaved in Ireland! I
sent him to school to learn Greek, and he picked up Irish!"

"And Greek as well," said my mother. "I heard him say the other day that
he could read St. John in the original tongue."

"You will find excuses for him, I know," said my father. "You tell me I
am always talking of my first-born; I might retort by saying you are
always thinking of the other; but it is the way of women always to side
with the second-born. There's what's her name in the Bible, by whose
wiles the old blind man was induced to give to his second son the
blessing which was the birthright of the other. I wish I had been in his
place! I should not have been so easily deceived! no disguise would ever
have caused me to mistake an impostor for my first-born. Though I must
say for this boy that he is nothing like Jacob; he is neither smooth nor
sleek, and, though my second-born, is already taller and larger than his
brother."

"Just so," said my mother; "his brother would make a far better Jacob
than he."

"I will hear nothing against my first-born," said my father, "even in the
way of insinuation: he is my joy and pride; the very image of myself in
my youthful days, long before I fought Big Ben; though perhaps not quite
so tall or strong built. As for the other, God bless the child! I love
him, I'm sure; but I must be blind not to see the difference between him
and his brother. Why, he has neither my hair nor my eyes; and then his
countenance! why, 'tis absolutely swarthy, God forgive me! I had almost
said like that of a gypsy, but I have nothing to say against that; the
boy is not to