3-052-329 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Harry and the Dwarf, from Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen's "Tales at Tea-Time", 1872. Illustration from a Christmas book. 'This is not the first or second appearance of Mr. E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, M.P., Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, in the pleasing office of story-teller for the amusement of little people...The scene called "Harry and the Dwarf" occurs in a story entitled "The Boy with a Tail." This poor boy, having unfortunately been cursed at his birth with a doggish caudal appendage, which he was obliged to wear enveloped in trousers or breeches of a peculiar shape, as we see in the illustration, felt the ridicule of his schoolfellows so intolerable that he ran away into the forest; and there he met the Dwarf, who hailed him from a tree overhead, just when Harry was beguiling the first hour of solitude by spinning his peg-top. If any reader cares to know what Harry and the Dwarf said to each other, apply to the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, but not at the Colonial Office, or, with previous notice of the question, to the hon. gentleman in the House of Commons'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.