Eight cousins : or, The aunt-hill

:198 EIGHT COUSINS.unless it is done in a very different way. I cannotthink they will help to refine the ragamuffins, if theyread them, and I 'm surethey can do no good to tliebetter class of boys, who through these books areintroduced to police courts, counterfeiters' dens, gamblinghouses, drinking saloons, and all sorts of lowlife.""Some of them are about first-rate boys, mother;and they go to sea and study, and sail round theworld, having great larks all the way."" I have read about them, Geordie, and though theyare better than the others, I am not satisfied withthese optical delusions, as I call them. Now, I put itto you, boys, is it natural for lads from fifteen toeighteen to command ships, defeat pirates, outwitsmugglers, and so cover themselves with glory, thatAdmiral Farragut invites them to dinner, saying*Noble boy, you are an honor to your country ! ' Or,if the hero is in the army, he has hair-breadth escapesand adventures enough in one small volume to turnhis hair white, and in the end he goes to Washingtonat the express desire of the President or Commanderin-Chiefto be promoted to no end of stars and bars.Even if the hero is merely an honest boy trying toget his living, he is not permitted to do so in a naturalway, by hard work and years of patient effort, butis suddenly adopted by a millionaire whose pocket-bookhe has returned ; or a rich uncle appears from sea,just in the nick of time ; or the remarkable boy earnsa few dollars, speculates in pea-nuts or neckties, andgrows rich so rapidly that Sinbad in the diamond valleyis a pauper compared to him. Is n't it so, boys ? "