"I should very much like to be like her when I grow up to that age; Mother says she was twenty-six. "And of course I know she would not have looked so nice in her picture if she'd squinted, and wrinkled her forehead, and had one shoulder out, and her tongue in her cheek, and a round back, and her chin poked, and her fingers all swollen with biting;--but, oh, Toby, you clever Pug! how am I to get rid of my tricks? "That is, if I must give them up; but it seems so hard to get into disgrace. "For doing what comes natural to one, with one's own eyes and legs, and fingers, and face." TOBY. "Remove your arms from my neck, Little Missis--I feel unusually apoplectic--and let me take two or three turns on the rug. "Whilst I turn the matter over in my mind, for never was there so puzzled a pug! "I am, as your respected Father truly observes, a most talented creature. "And as to fit subjects for family portraits and personal appearance--from the top of my massive brow to the tip of my curly tail, I believe myself to be perfect in every feature. "And when my ears are just joined over my forehead like a black velvet cap, I'm reckoned the living likeness of a late eminent divine and once popular preacher. "Did your great-great-grandmamma ever take a prize at a show? But let that pass--the real question is this: "How is it that what I am most highly commended for, should in your case be taken amiss? "Why am I reckoned the best and cleverest of dogs? Because I've picked up tricks so quickly ever since I was a pup. "And if I couldn't wrinkle my forehead and poke out my chin, and grimace at the judges, do you suppose I should ever have been--Class Pug. First Prize--Champion and Gold Cup? "We have one thing in common--I do _not_ find it easy to sit up. "But I learned it, and so will you. I can't imagine worse manners than to put one's tongue in one's cheek; as a rule, I hang mine gracefully out on one side. "And I've no doubt it's a mistake to gnaw your fingers. I gnawed a good deal in my puppyhood, but chewing my paws is a trick that I never tried. "How you stand on one leg I cannot imagine; with my figure it's all I can do to stand upon four. "I balance biscuit on my nose. Do you? I jump through a hoop (an atrocious trick, my dear, after one's first youth--and a full meal!)--I bark three cheers for the Queen, and I shut the dining-room door. "I lie flat on the floor at the word of command--In short, I've as many tricks as you have, and every one of them counts to my credit; "Whilst yours--so you say--only bring you into disgrace, which I could not have thought possible if you had not said it. "Indeed--but for the length of my experience and the solidity of my judgment--this would tempt me to think your mamma a very foolish person, and to advise you to disobey her; but I do _not_, Little Missis, for I know "That if you belong to good and kind people, it is well to let them train you up in the way in which they think you should go.