“F’ow him in ’er fire!” We were sure that the new member of the family appreciated the difficulty of his position. We wondered if he had understood when he had heard us refer to him as the “Little Calamity.” After a few days’ acquaintance with him we were afraid he had, and felt a delicacy in using the term, which we had at first thought rather a good joke. Dear Little Calamity, how often we have spoken of that misnomer since! From his first hour his actions seemed regulated by the peaceful resolve never to be in the way, and never to make any one uncomfortable. The unvarying serenity with which he devoted himself to absorbing as much nourishment as his small system would hold, and then sleeping sweetly for hours and most artistically assimilating it, was quite touching. “Look at him,” his mamma would say. “He is trying to insinuate himself. He intends to prove that he is really an addition, and that no family should be without him. But no family can have him,” she burst forth in a very short time, “no family but ours. Nobody is rich enough to buy him. He has made his own price, and it is five hundred thousand million dollars!” When he had selected her as a parent he had probably observed that she was a susceptible person—peculiarly susceptible to the special variety of charms he had to offer. He had analyzed her weakness and his strength, and had known she was a fitting victim for his seductive arts. The unflinchingness with which he applied himself to the fine art of infant fascination was really worth reflecting upon. At thirty there are numerous methods by which a person may prove that he is worthy of affection and admiration; at three months his charms and virtues are limited to a good digestion, a tendency to somnolence, and an unobtrusive temper. The new arrival did not obtrude upon us any ostentatiously novel attractions. He merely applied himself to giving his family the most superior specimens of the meritorious qualities his tender age was entitled to. He never complained of feeling unwell, he was generally asleep, and when he was awake he would lie upon his back without revolt for a much longer period than is submitted to usually by persons of his months. And when he did so he invariably wore the air of being engaged in sweet-tempered though profound reflection. [Illustration: FAUNTLEROY’S WELCOME INTO THE WORLD: “F’OW HIM IN ’ER FIRE!”]