expression as are those children of cities,
in whom the mind is cultivated at the expense of the body; but still he
had the health of the country in his cheeks, and was not without the
grace of the city in his compact figure and easy movements. There was in
his physiognomy something interesting from its peculiar character of
innocence and simplicity. You could see that he had been brought up by a
woman, and much apart from familiar contact with other children; and such
intelligence as was yet developed in him, was not ripened by the jokes
and cuffs of his coevals, but fostered by decorous lecturings from his
elders, and good little boy maxims in good little boy books.

_Parson._--"Come hither, Lenny. You know the benefit of school, I see: it
can teach you nothing better than to be a support to your mother."

_Lenny_, looking down sheepishly, and with a heightened glow over his
face.--"Please, sir, that may come one of these days."

_Parson._--"That's right, Lenny. Let me see! why you must be nearly a
man. How old are you?"

Lenny looks up inquiringly at his mother.

_Parson._--"You ought to know, Lenny, speak for yourself. Hold your
tongue, Mrs. Fairfield."

_Lenny_, twirling his hat, and in great perplexity.--"Well, and there is
Flop, neighbor Dutton's old sheep-dog. He be very old now."

_Parson._--"I am not asking Flop's age, but your own."

_Lenny._-"'Deed, sir, I have heard say as how Flop and I were pups
together. That is, I--I--"

For the Parson is laughing, and so is Mrs. Fairfield; and the haymakers
who have stood still to listen, are laughing too. And poor Lenny has
quite lost his head, and looks as if he would like to cry.

_Parson_, patting the curly locks, encouragingly.--"Never mind; it is not
so badly answered after all. And how old is Flop?"

_Lenny._--"Why, he must be fifteen year and more."

_Parson._--"How old, then, are you?"

_Lenny_, looking up with a beam of intelligence.--"Fifteen year and
more!"

Widow sighs and nods her head.

"That's what we call putting two and two together," said the Parson. "Or,
in other words," and here be raised his eyes majestically toward the
haymakers--"in other words--thanks to his love for his book--simple as he
stands here, Lenny Fairfield has shown himself capable of INDUCTIVE
RATIOCINATION."

At those words, delivered _ore rotundo_, the haymakers ceased laughing.
For even in lay matters they held the Parson to be an oracle, and words
so long m