This gift Butler had in the highest degree; he gives a turn or a twist to the most ordinary matter, so that it bores its way to the depths of our minds, there to stay when more important things have crumbled to dust. If proof of this is wanted, read his account of buying new-laid eggs in The Note-books, or the story of ‘The Aunt, the Nieces, and the Dog’, or the anecdote of the old lady and her parrot in The Humour of Homer.
