So it was comparatively a light affliction for me to remember that I had been called by such hard names.

"Putty-headed!" said he.

I infer, dear Aunty, that he must have worked in the painter's department, and had been familiar with putty; hence he drew the epithet, into whose signification I did not care to inquire.

"White-birch-looking!" I suppose he referred to the impression of imbecility which we have in seeing a perfectly white tree in the woods among the deep green of the sturdier trees.

He may have referred to the effect of sedentary habits on my complexion.