this mode of locomotion, believing himself quite capable of driving his
mother in the gig, whereas he is only destined to occupy her place in the
evening, and return with his father. Then comes the said germ, a boy whom
repeated attacks of illness have blanched, and who looks as if the
thinness of its earthly garment made his soul tremble with the proximity
of the ungenial world. Then follows a pretty blonde, with smooth hair, and
smooth cheeks, and bright blue eyes, the embodiment of home pleasures and
love; whose chief enjoyment, and earthly destiny indeed, so far as yet
revealed, consist in administering to the cupidities of her younger
brother, a very ogre of gingerbread men, and Silenus of bottled milk. This
milk, by the way, is expected, from former experience, to afford
considerable pleasure at the close of the journey, in the shape of one or
two pellets of butter in each bottle; the novelty of the phenomenon, and
not any scarcity of the article, constituting the ground of interest. A
baby on the lap of a rosy country-girl, and the servant in his blue Sunday
coat, who sits outside the cover on the edge of the cart, but looks in
occasionally to show some attention to the young woman, complete the
contents of the vehicle.

"Herbert Netherby, though, as I have said, only thirteen years of age, had
already attained a degree of mental development sufficient for
characterization. Disease had favoured the almost unhealthy predominance
of the mental over the bodily powers of the child; so that, although the
constitution which at one time was supposed to have entirely given way,
had for the last few years been gradually gaining strength, he was still
to be seen far oftener walking about with his hands in his pockets, and
his gaze bent on the ground, or turned up to the clouds, than joining in
any of the boyish sports of those of his own age. A nervous dread of
ridicule would deter him from taking his part, even when for a moment the
fountain of youthfulness gushed forth, and impelled him to find rest in