the irreproachable behaviour of the gentlemen at
dinner. Dicky's father comes out as hardly less foolish than his son,
which is not common in these books. To call a doctor Hardheart seems to
me to have been a courageous thing. The sentence, 'The boy's father,
though a labouring man, had a generous mind,' would help us to date the
story, even without the evidence of the title-page. It is astonishing
for how long the poor had to play a degraded part in minor English
literature.

In another story in the book, called 'Good Manners their own Reward,' I
find this sentence, which contains an idea for a children's manual that
certainly ought to be written, under the same title too: 'Master Goodly
not long after this had the pleasure of seeing a small book printed and
circulated among his juvenile acquaintance, called "The Way to be
Invited a Second Time."'

We pass next to a little work of pretty fancy, 'The Months,' which by
its ingenuity I hope makes up for want of drama. I have included it on
that ground, and also because if the descriptions were read aloud in
irregular order to small children, it might be an agreeable means of
encouraging thought and observation if the listeners were asked to put a
name to each month. 'The Months' comes from a book published in 1814
entitled _Tales from the Mountains_, the mountains being those dividing
England from Wales. A story in the same volume which I nearly included
has the promising style 'The Spotted Cow and the Pianoforte,' but its
matter is not equal to its title. It is, indeed, a variation upon a very
old theme, being the narrative of two girls of equal age who, coming
into a little prosperity, at once gratify old desires: one, the
exemplary one, wishing a useful cow, and the other, the frivolous one, a
piano. The author, in the old remorseless way, contrasts their
subsequent careers, nothing but happiness and worth falling to the
sensible girl who chose the cow, and nothing but disaster dogging the
steps of the foolish desirer of the musical instrument. I do not think
this to be good working morality, since proficiency on the piano can
also be a step towards a livelihood and independence, and even Madame
Schumann, one supposes, had to make a start somehow. The name of the
author is not known.

Probably no story in this collection had more popularity in its day than
'Jemima Placid,' of which I use only a portion. And I think it deserved
it, for it is very pleasantly and sympa