then a very pleasant little revenge on their keepers, for they half
worried them out of their lives by disturbances and complaints, and
at any rate that was some comfort to them, although very often it
hindered the nursery from being done half as soon as it would have
been if they had been quiet.

"I shall not have time to tell of everything," continued Aunt Judy,
"so I must hurry over the breakfast, although the keepers contrived
to make even that miserable, by doing all they could to prevent the
little Victims from spilling their food on the table and floor, and
also by insisting on the poor little things sitting tolerably upright
on their seats--NOT lolling with both elbows on the table-cloth--NOT
making a mess--not, in short, playing any of those innocent little
pranks in which young creatures take delight.

"It was a pitiable spectacle, as you may suppose, to see reasonable
beings constrained against their inclinations to sit quietly while
they ate their hearty morning meal, which really, perhaps, they might
have enjoyed, had they been allowed to amuse themselves in their own
fashion at the same time.

"But I must go on now to that great misery of the day, which I shall
call the LESSON misery.

"Now you must know, the little Victims were all born, as young kids,
lambs, kittens, and puppy-dogs are, with a decided liking for jumping
about and playing all day long. Think, therefore, what their
sufferings were when they were placed in chairs round a table, and
obliged to sit and stare at queer looking characters in books until
they had learned to know them what was called BY HEART. It was a