The christening of his brother he remembered with all its circumstances,
and said his mother taught him to spell and pronounce the words 'little
Natty,' syllable by syllable, making him say it over in the evening to her
husband and his guests. The trick which most parents play with their
children, that of showing off their newly-acquired accomplishments,
disgusted Mr. Johnson beyond expression. He had been treated so himself,
he said, till he absolutely loathed his father's caresses, because he knew
they were sure to precede some unpleasing display of his early abilities;
and he used, when neighbours came o' visiting, to run up a tree that he
might not be found and exhibited, such, as no doubt he was, a prodigy of
early understanding. His epitaph upon the duck he killed by treading on it
at five years old--

"Here lies poor duck
That Samuel Johnson trod on;
If it had liv'd it had been good luck,
For it would have been an odd one"--

is a striking example of early expansion of mind and knowledge of language;
yet he always seemed more mortified at the recollection of the bustle his
parents made with his wit than pleased with the thoughts of possessing it.
"That," said he to me one day, "is the great misery of late marriages; the
unhappy produce of them becomes the plaything of dotage. An old man's
child," continued he, "leads much such a life. I think, as a little boy's
dog, teased with awkward fondness, and forced, perhaps, to sit up and beg,
as we call it, to divert a company, who at last go away complaining of
their disagreeable entertainment." In consequence of these maxims, and
full of indignation against such parents as delight to produce their young
ones early into the talking world, I have known Mr. Johnson give a good