She was six years old, and would go quietly to a shelf and take down
a book or two, and having torn a dozen leaves or so down the middle,
would replace the volumes, fragments and all, in their places,
the damage being undiscovered until the books were wanted for use.
Reprimand, expostulation and even punishment were of no avail;
but a single "whipping" effected a cure.
Boys, however, are by far more destructive than girls,
and have, naturally, no reverence for age, whether in man or books.
Who does not fear a schoolboy with his first pocket-knife?
As Wordsworth did not say:--
"You may trace him oft
By scars which his activity has left
Upon our shelves and volumes. * * *
He who with pocket-knife will cut the edge
Of luckless panel or of prominent book,
Detaching with a stroke a label here, a back-band there."
_Excursion III, 83_.
Pleased, too, are they, if, with mouths full of candy,
and sticky fingers, they can pull in and out the books on your
bottom shelves, little knowing the damage and pain they will cause.
One would fain cry out, calling on the Shade of Horace to pardon
the false quantity--
"Magna movet stomacho fastidia, si puer unctis
Tractavit volumen manibus." _Sat.
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