The things we do!

If my lord wanted a quarrel, young Clive was not a
man to balk him; and would have been a very fierce customer to deal with,
in his actual state of mind.
A pauper child in London at seven years old knows how to go to market, to
fetch the beer, to pawn father's coat, to choose the largest fried fish
or the nicest ham-bone, to nurse Mary Jane of three,--to conduct a
hundred operations of trade or housekeeping, which a little Belgravian
does not perhaps acquire in all the days of her life. Poverty and
necessity force this precociousness on the poor little brat. There are
children who are accomplished shoplifters and liars almost as soon as
they can toddle and speak. I dare say little Princes know the laws of
etiquette as regards themselves, and the respect due to their rank, at a
very early period of their royal existence. Every one of us, according to
his degree, can point to the Princekins of private life who are flattered
and worshipped, and whose little shoes grown men kiss as soon almost as
they walk upon ground.


Pages:
1273 1274 1275 1276 1277 1278 1279 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289 1290 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297