gaged in its
composition is not stated, but from the internal evidence yielded by the
spelling and the handwriting (for the work is lithographed in exact
imitation of the manuscript) we should infer that it occupied two or
three years, the handwriting of the first seven chapters being in
imitation of ordinary printing, while the remaining chapters appear in
an ordinary schoolboy's hand. We may add that it is copiously
illustrated by himself, and that the illustrations are worth their
weight in gold, supplementing as they do, in a superfluously exact and
curiously quaint manner, this most unique work.

He starts with this account of himself: "My name is Charles John Young,
and I was born in Amfort, a pretty village in Hampshire, 1833 in July,
that pleasant time when the birds sing merrily and flowers bloom
sweetly. My father and mother are the kindest in the world, and I love
them dearly and both alike. I shall give a description of them by and
by. In the mean time I shall just say that my papa is a clergyman."

The earlier chapters describe the various migrations of the family from
one parish to another, and from them we have no difficulty in
recognizing in "papa" the Rev. Julian Young, who possessed no small
share of the talents that distinguished _his_ father, the celebrated
tragedian, Charles Young, and which seem to have been transmitted to our
author, who, we understand, has honorably served his country in Her
Majesty's army. From his earliest years Charlie seems to have been
strongly influenced by religious feelings. His creed was a bright and
trustful one, a realization of God's presence and of the need of
speaking to Him as to one who could always hear and help. When he was
about three years old, we are told in the editor's interesting preface,
he was often heard offering up little petitions for the supply of his
child-like wants. Once, when, his nurse left him to fetch some more
milk, his father overheard him saying, "O God, please let there be
enough milk in the jug for me to have some more, for Jesus Christ's
sake. Amen." Many quaint little religious reflections and scriptural
allusions are interspersed throughout the book. In one place he declares
that "without papa and mamma the garden would be to me what the
wilderness was to John the Baptist;" while again he offers up a pathetic
prayer for a baby-brother; and throughout we are struck by the fact that
his religion was pre-eminently one of love. Charlie's