Page:A Legend of Camelot, Pictures and Poems, etc. George du Maurier, 1898.djvu/135

 to them, which Mr. Punch looks upon as the highest conducement (if he may forge a word) to earthly bliss. He has dwelt at length, and with a lingering fondness, on this idyllic picture of the Spratts' home, and the gentle life they led there. Grave it in your mind, good reader, for there are few such homes in England; nay, that you may grave it in your mind the better, Mr. Punch has subtilely limned for you a cartoon showing the Spratts at home, in their pretty garden, with the twins and the trusty friends, all mediævally arrayed, around them. Jack Spratt and his wife are playing "cat's cradle," the twins are revolving quaint conceits in their æsthetic little minds; the friends are fondly lute-playing, or poring over old myths, and musing sadly on the light of other days; what time Sally the Cook is dishing up a cold roast capon (which, in her haste, she has unfortunately peacocked the wrong way), and her distant policeman looks over the wall, with one eye for her, and one for the cold roast capon. Say, reader, is not it a fair, glad, gracious picture?

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