though in their hearts they are probably comparing him unfavourably with
their own offspring. Altogether Edward has a cheery life.

Upon a certain day Edward fell in with a very little man--so little,
indeed, that most people would have called him a dwarf. He was walking in
the same direction as Edward, and overtaking him, and Edward waved his hand
and smiled and waved again.

For a while the little man ignored these overtures. But at length he felt
obliged to return them, and remarked to Kate, who propels the perambulator,
"Seems friendly like;" to which Kate replied, "Oh, he always waves to
everyone."

Now the majority of people would have been rather repelled by that remark.
For myself I may say that, though Edward always smiles when we meet, I do
not greatly value it because I know he smiles in the same way upon everyone
else.

But it was not so with the little man. To be classed with "everyone," to be
placed by Edward on an equality with the strong and graceful, sent a warm
glow to his heart.

So Edward, in his free-and-easy fashion, had, like the boy-scouts, done one
good deed that day.

* * * * *

"The system of women and girls acting as field labourers, ploughing and
shepherding, etc., in itself produces a rough state of
society."--_Country Life._