If a toy was denied him, he neither bellowed like his little brother nor raved like his little sister, but toddled off and sulked in a corner all day long.

When he grew a little older, if he was not allowed to play in the garden because it was damp, he refused to play in the nursery, he refused to come down to the dining-room, he refused to say his prayers at bedtime.

When he was old enough to go to school, he would either play marbles the way he was used to (which was the wrong way), or not at all.

If found fault with for not knowing his lesson, he pushed his books from him, and endured to be stood in the corner, or punished some other way, rather than learn his task.

The vice only became worse and worse as time went on, and to-day Tom is an odious fellow.