DESPITE the sinister semi-predictions of the _ci-devant_ heir-at-law, the youthful Chillingly passed with safety, and indeed with dignity, through the infant stages of existence.

He took his measles and whooping-cough with philosophical equanimity.

He gradually acquired the use of speech, but he did not too lavishly exercise that special attribute of humanity.

During the earlier years of childhood he spoke as little as if he had been prematurely trained in the school of Pythagoras.

But he evidently spoke the less in order to reflect the more.