He Improved the Opportunity.

Otago Witness, Issue 2497, 22 January 1902, Page 77

He Improved the Opportunity.

"There, there, there !" exclaimed the wife of the realistic novelist, as she rushed into her husband's study and picked up her howling offspring. "Did muzzie's precious little lamb think she had deserted him?" After she liad^ quieted him she turned to her husband and asked : "Did you have a terrible time with Willie while I was out?" "Oh, no," replied the author, with a glad smile. "I was very much interested. I had never before made a study of how a baby cries, and I have secured some very interesting notes. I have discovered just how a baby cries when lonely. A few minutes after you went out he began to whine softly to himself, and to wander about as if looking for someone. Then he l<>t out a yell When I spoke to him and asked him what was the matter he drew down the i orners of bis mouth and begun to cry in earnest. The bounds he made were all variations of the vowels, altogether devoid of c-onsonants. "His method of crying io to utter from four to he\ en sharp, barking sounds; then i 1 raw a quick, deep breath and yell at the top of his voice witli his mouth almost perfectly round. From time to time he varied tins perfoin*i>nce by holding his breath as if choking, and when he did, not only liib face, but even his scalp, got red." "And you sat there and took notes, you brute ! I'll never leave our darling with such a -old-blooded man again." As she said this she gathered up the pet of the household and flounced from the loom in a huff. The realistic novelist took a couple of turns about the room, smiling softly to him«clf in the meantime, and then stopped before a mirror and winked at himself in a way that suggested that perhaps after all he had Minply been doing a clever little romancing tlia: \\i r.ld sa\e linn fiu.u Lci.'ig left ill chaise- of the baby in 'uture.