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her any question in the book, and she would answer it.
‘Wel l? ’
‘She did not answer it.’
‘Let us see about it. What did you ask her?’
‘I opened the book at random, as she proposed, and I put
the first question that I came across.’
‘And what was the question?’
‘It was, ‘What happened after that?’’
It was there that that profound remark was made
anent a rather greedy paroquet which belonged to a lady
boarder:—
‘How well bred! it eats the top of the slice of bread and
butter just like a person!’
It was on one of the flagstones of this cloister that there
was once picked up a confession which had been written out
in advance, in order that she might not forget it, by a sinner
of seven years:—
‘Father, I accuse myself of having been avaricious.
‘Father, I accuse myself of having been an adulteress.
‘Father, I accuse myself of having raised my eyes to the
gentlemen.’
It was on one of the turf benches of this garden that a rosy
mouth six years of age improvised the following tale, which
was listened to by blue eyes aged four and five years:—
‘There were three little cocks who owned a country where
there were a great many flowers. They plucked the flowers
and put them in their pockets. After that they plucked the
leaves and put them in their playthings. There was a wolf in
that country; there was a great deal of forest; and the wolf