* * * * * A YOUTHFUL OBSERVER. "Dear me, Robbie," said his mother, "do you want to be a baby all your life? Do behave yourself." "I wouldn't mind, Mamma," said Robbie. "All the baby does is laugh and squawk and get waited on. Seems to me that's rather pleasant." * * * * * AN OPINION. I don't know what my Daddy does, But I've a sort of whim That when I get to be a man I'd like to be like him! For he's the finest chum I have. It doesn't matter what He does to me, I think he's best Of all the friends I've got! Why, even when he takes his hand And spanks me, and I cry, I cannot truly help but see A look in Daddy's eye Which shows me, though he doesn't spare My feelings with his hand, He loves me more than anything That lives on sea or land. And so I say if sometimes I Have little boys like his, I hope that I'll be to them as To me my Daddy is! JOHN KENDRICK BANGS. End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, December 29, 1896, by Various