A small boy found that learning his alphabet was a
grievous trouble. " No wonder," said Mr. William Makepeace Thaekeray ; " it is such a very dull thing to learn.", So, he sat down with some notepaper before him, and 'composed a rhymed alphabet with such couplets as "L• is a Lion covered o'er with gore Which on the desert shore makes horrid roar" ; and he illustrated each entry with an appropriate drawing, very spirited and comical. This booklet has been treasured -by the family for which it was composed, and is now for the first time reproduced as The Thackeray Alphabet (Murray, as. 6d.). Children in similar straits will still find that their labours can be eased ; and grown-ups will perhaps recollect that the stern and savage Victorians understood something of childhood, and were, not occupied all the time in " putting the young into their place.":,
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