eing rather
fractious; at least, so nurse says. We propose to have him
christened at twelve o'clock on Friday, at Saint George's church, in
Hart-street, by the name of Frederick Charles William. Pray don't be
later than a quarter before twelve. We shall have a very few friends
in the evening, when of course we shall see you. I am sorry to say
that the dear boy appears rather restless and uneasy to-day: the
cause, I fear, is fever.

'Believe me, dear Uncle,
'Yours affectionately,
'CHARLES KITTERBELL.

'P.S.--I open this note to say that we have just discovered the cause
of little Frederick's restlessness. It is not fever, as I
apprehended, but a small pin, which nurse accidentally stuck in his
leg yesterday evening. We have taken it out, and he appears more
composed, though he still sobs a good deal.'

It is almost unnecessary to say that the perusal of the above interesting
statement was no great relief to the mind of the hypochondriacal Dumps.
It was impossible to recede, however, and so he put the best face--that
is to say, an uncommonly miserable one--upon the matter; and purchased a
handsome silver mug for the infant Kitterbell, upon which he ordered the
initials 'F. C. W. K.,' with the customary untrained grape-vine-looking
flourishes, and a large full stop, to be engraved forthwith.

Monday was a fine day, Tuesday was delightful, Wednesday was equal to
either, and Thursday was finer than ever; four successive fine days in
London! Hackney-coachmen became revolutionary, and crossing-sweepers
began to doubt the existence of a First Cause. The _Morning Herald_
informed its readers that an old woman in Camden Town had been heard to
say that the fineness of the season was 'unprecedented in the memory of
the oldest inhabitant;' and Islington clerks, with large families and
small salaries, left off their black gaiters, disdained to carry their
once green cotton umbrellas, and walked to town in the conscious pride of
white stockings and cleanly brushed Bluchers. Dumps beheld all this with
an eye of supreme contempt--his triumph was at hand. He knew that if it
had been fine for four weeks instead of four days, it would rain when he
went out; he was lugubriously happy in the conviction that Friday would
be a wre