THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN
Books by
Ralph Bergengren
The Perfect Gentleman
The Comforts of Home
Each $1.00
—
For
Younger Readers
Jane, Joseph and John
Boxed, $3.00
The
SEVEN AGES of MAN
BY
RALPH BERGENGREN
The Atlantic Monthly Press
Boston
Copyright, 1921, by
Ralph Bergengren
CONTENTS
| I. | Baby, Baby | 1 |
| II. | To be a Boy | 17 |
| III. | On Meeting the Beloved | 33 |
| IV. | This is a Father | 47 |
| V. | On Being a Landlord | 64 |
| VI. | Old Flies and Old Men | 78 |
| VII. | The Olde, Olde, Very Olde Man | 94 |
I
BABY, BABY
In meeting a baby, one should behave as much as possible like ababy one’s self. We cannot, of course, diminish our size, orexchange our customary garments for baby-clothes; neither can wearrive in a perambulator, and be conveyed in the arms, either of aparent or a nursemaid, into the presence of the baby whom we are tomeet. The best we can do is to hang, as it were on the hatrack, ourpreconceived ideas of what manner of behavior entertains a baby, ascooing, grimacing, tickling, and the like, and model our deportmenton the dignified but friendly reticence that one baby evinces inmeeting another.—Baby: his Friends and Foes.
OF the many questions that Mr. Boswell, at one time and another, askedhis friend, Dr. Johnson, I can hardly recall another more searchin