"
"Pending which," said his mother, "I suppose poor Allen will continue
to hover on the wings of the Petrel?"
"And send home mournful madrigals by the ream," said Bobus. "Never
was petrel so tuneful a bird!"
"For shame, Bobus; I never meant you to see them!"
"'Twas quite involuntary! I have trouble enough with my own pupil's
effusions. I leave him a bit of Latin composition, and what do I
find but an endless doggerel ballad on What's his name?-—who hid
under his father's staircase as a beggar, eating the dogs' meat,
while his afflicted family were searching for him in vain;-—his
favourite example."
"St. Alexis," said Babie; "he was asked to versify it."
"As a wholesome incentive to filial duty and industry," said Bobus.
"Does the Parsoness mean to have it sung in the school?"
"It might be less dangerous than 'the fox went out one moonshiny
night,'" said their mother, anxious to turn the conversation. "Mr.
Parsons brought Mr. Todd of Wrexham in to see the school just as the
children were singing the final catastrophe when the old farmer 'shot
the old fox right through the head.' He was so horrified that he
declared the schools should never have a penny of his while they
taught such murder and heresy."
"Served them right," said Jock, "for spoiling that picture of
domestic felicity when 'the little ones picked the bones, oh!'
How many guns shall we be, Bobus?"
"Only three.
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