"Ooh! This is what there is
when a lady gives you a beer." I understood that he referred to the
bleared glass behind the bar of the Chequers, and I appreciated Teddy's
powers of comparison; but I explained to him that mirrors cannot be
safely hauled about by little boys, and he kindly assented to this
proposition.
We had tea, and Teddy so far improved on his bashfulness that he made
grabs at several things which would have disagreed with him if I had let
him follow his inclinations. He affably received my hints on table
etiquette, and smiled with gentleness when I told him he had eaten
enough. The little creature's ideas were like those of a dog. He had
been taught to follow and to come home to his kennel; he was ready to be
gracious toward those who fed him, and he had the true canine glance
which expresses gratitude and expectancy at once. But he was only a
rudimentary human being, and his brain power had slept so far. I showed
him Caldecott's wonderful "House that Jack Built," and he gloated over
that delightful villain of a dog; the cat and the rat he understood, but
he knew nothing of the cow.
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