fact ascertained, by accurate calculations, that the following
immense percentage of babies never attain to two years old; that is
to say--'"

"Oh, don't, father, please!" cried Johnny. "I can't bear it, when
I think of Sally."

Mr. Tetterby desisting, Johnny, with a profound sense of his trust,
wiped his eyes, and hushed his sister.

"Your brother 'Dolphus," said his father, poking the fire, "is late
to-night, Johnny, and will come home like a lump of ice. What's
got your precious mother?"

"Here's mother, and 'Dolphus too, father!" exclaimed Johnny, "I
think."

"You're right!" returned his father, listening. "Yes, that's the
footstep of my little woman."

The process of induction, by which Mr Tetterby had come to the
conclusion that his wife was a little woman, was his own secret.
She would have made two editions of himself, very easily.
Considered as an individual, she was rather remarkable for being
robust and portly; but considered with reference to her husband,
her dimensions became magnificent. Nor did they assume a less
imposing proportion, when studied with reference to the size of her
seven sons, who were but diminutive. In the case of Sally,
however, Mrs. Tetterby had asserted herself, at last; as nobody
knew better than the victim Johnny, who weighed and measured that