The more I saw of Marpeet, the more the extreme kindness and benevolence of his disposition became apparent. The tenderness of his nature, indeed, was frequently too much for his assumed rough and devil-me-care manner (which he thought manly), and would sometimes, if he was taken by surprise, show itself with almost a woman’s weakness. Marpeet, as I have before stated, from invincible shyness, or awkwardness with females, or dislike of the restraint it imposed, had renounced the character of a “ladies’ man,” and was evidently doomed to die an old bachelor. Still, we must all have something to love and be kind to, be it wife, child, friend, cat, dog, or parrot. Affection, if it has not something external on which to rest, turns to gall, embittering the life which, under a happier state of things, it would have sweetened. Marpeet’s benevolence displayed itself in his kindness to youth: rearing griffins, till fully fledged, constituting his extreme delight. Never shall I forget the great satisfaction which his good-humoured physiognomy would express when surrounded by a bevy of young hands, all warm in their feelings towards him, and on perfect terms of familiarity, but at the same time exhibiting that profound deference to his dictum on deep and important points, such as the age of a horse, the manner of performing a manœuvre, or the way to make mulled port, and the like, which had the most bland and soothing influence on his feelings. Skylark, Wildfire, and myself, were his immediate body-guard; we chummed with him, and though he allowed us to contribute to the house keeping expenses, the lion’s share, if the phrase is here allowable, fell to him. He and I never quarrelled; but I could generally infer the state of his feelings from the name or appellation by which he addressed me. “Gernon” and “Frankibus” were the zero and summer-heat of the scale, between which were “my lad,” “young gentleman,” “you confounded griff,” “youngster,” and so forth; all of which, by the invariableness of the circumstances which elicited them, indicated the state of his mind at the moment: as “Come, my lad, this noise won’t do;” and “Young gentleman, I have to make out my report, and beg you won’t interrupt me.” “Well, old boy, how do you get on? are you disposed for a game at picquet?” and so forth; but, “Come, Gernon, I don’t like that,” told me his back was “hogged.” One blot and inconsistency there was in Marpeet’s character: he was addicted to flogging his servants for what we here should deem trifling offences. On these occasions he always, however, put the offender through the form of a trial, in which, to save trouble, he acted in the quintuple capacity of plaintiff, judge, jury, witness, and counsel for the prosecution. After a dispassionate summing up, the guilty party was wont to be handed over to the kulassee, or tent-pitcher, to have administered a dozen or two of strokes with the rattan.