The Note Books Of Samuel Butler

Written Sketches 245

Manzi the Model

They had promised him sittings at the Royal Academy
and then refused him on the ground that his legs were too
hairy. He complained to Gogin :

" Why/1 said he, " I sat at the Slade School for the figure
only last week, and there were five ladies, but not one of them
told me my legs were too hairy/'

A Sailor Boy and Some Chickens

A pretty girl in the train had some chirping chickens
about ten days' old in a box labelled " German egg powders.
One packet equal to six eggs." A sailor boy got in at Basing-
stoke, a quiet, reserved youth, well behaved and unusually
good-looking. By and by the chickens were taken out of the
box and fed with biscuit on the carriage seat. This thawed
the boy who, though he fought against it for some lime,
yielded to irresistible fascination and said:

"What are they?"

" Chickens/' said the girl.

" Will they grow bigger ? "

" Yes/'

Then the boy said with an expression of infinite wonder:
" And did you hatch them from they powders ? "

We all laughed till the boy blushed and I was very sorry
for him. If we had said they had been hatched from the
powders he would have certainly believed us.

Gogin, the Japanese Gentleman and the
Dead Dog

Gogin was one day going down Cleveland Street and saw an
old, lean, careworn man crying over the body of his dog which
had been just run over and killed by the old man's own cart.
I have no doubt it was the dog's fault, for the man was in great
distress ; as for the dog there it lay all swelled and livid where
the wheel had gone over it, its eyes protruded from their
sockets and its tongue lolled out, but it was dead. The old
man gazed on it, helplessly weeping, for some time and then