arks, let me introduce to you a character new
in fiction, but terribly old in history--

THE CLUCKING COCK.

Upon the birth of a son and heir Mr. Richard Bassett was inflated
almost to bursting. He became suddenly hospitable, collected all his
few friends about him, and showed them all the Boy at great length, and
talked Boy and little else. He went out into the world and made calls
on people merely to remind them he had a son and heir.

His self-gratulation took a dozen forms; perhaps the most amusing, and
the richest food for satire, was the mock-querulous style, of which he
showed himself a master.

"Don't you ever marry," said he to Wheeler and others. "Look at me; do
you think I am the master of my own house? Not I; I am a regular slave.
First, there is a monthly nurse, who orders me out of my wife's
presence, or graciously lets me in, just as she pleases; that is Queen
1. Then there's a wet-nurse, Queen 2, whom I must humor in everything,
or she will quarrel with me, and avenge herself by souring her milk.
But these are mild tyrants compared with the young King himself. If he
does but squall we must all skip, and find out what he ails, or what he
wants. As for me, I am looked upon as a necessary evil; the women seem
to admit that a father is an incumbrance without which these little
angels could not exist, but that is all."

He had a christening feast, and it was pretty well attended, for he
reminded all he asked that the young Christian was the heir to the
Bassett estates. They feasted, and the church-bells rang merrily.

He had his pew in the church new lined with cloth, and took his wife to
be churched. The nurse was in the pew too, with his son and heir. It
squalled and spoiled the Liturgy. Thereat Gallus chuckled.

He made a gravel-walk all along the ha-ha that separated his garden
from Sir Charles's, and called it "The Heir's Walk." Here the nurse and
child used to parade on sunny afternoons.

He got an army of workmen, and built a nursery fit for a duke's nine
children. It occupied two entire stories, and rose in the form of a
square tower high above the rest of his house, which, indeed, was as
humble as "The Heir's Tower" was pretentious. "The Heir's Tower" had a
flat lead roof easy of access, and from it you could inspect
Huntercombe Hall, and see what was done on the lawn or at some of the
windows.

Here, in the August afternoons, Mr. and Mrs. Bassett used to sit
drinking their tea, w