CHAPTER ONE.BEGINS TO UNFOLD THE TALE OF THE LIONS BY DESCRIBING THE LION OF THETALE.We trust, good reader, that it will not cause you a feeling ofdisappointment to be told that the name of our hero is Brown--Tom Brown.It is important at the beginnin... Read more

CHAPTER ONE.BEGINS TO UNFOLD THE TALE OF THE LIONS BY DESCRIBING THE LION OF THETALE.We trust, good reader, that it will not cause you a feeling ofdisappointment to be told that the name of our hero is Brown--Tom Brown.It is important at the beginning of any matter that those concernedshould clearly understand their position, therefore we have thought fit,even at the risk of throwing a wet blanket over you, to commence thistale on one of the most romantic of subjects by stating--and nowrepeating that our hero was a member of the large and (supposed to be)unromantic family of the Browns.A word in passing about the romance of the family. Just because theBrown family is large, it has some to be deemed unromantic. Every oneknows that two of the six green-grocers in the next street are Browns.The fat sedate butcher round the corner is David Brown, and the milkmanis James Brown. The latter is a square-faced practical man, who islooked up to as a species of oracle by all his friends. Half a dozendrapers within a mile of you are named Brown, and all of them are shrewdmen of business, who have feathered their nests well, and stick tobusiness like burrs. You will certainly find that several of thehardest-working clergymen, and one or more of the city missionaries, arenamed Brown; and as to Doctor Browns, there is no end of them! But whygo further? The fact is patent to every unprejudiced person.Now, instead of admitting that the commonness of the name of Brownproves its owners to be unromantic, we hold that this is a distinctevidence of the deep-seated romance of the family. In the first place,it is probable that their multitudinosity is the result of romance,which, as every one knows, has a tendency to cause men and women to fallin love, and marry early in life. Brown is almost always a good husbandand a kind father. Indeed he is a good, steady-going man in all therelations of life, and his name, in our mind at least, is generallyassociated with troops of happy children who call him daddy, andregard him in the light of an elephantine playmate. And they do so withgood reason, for Brown is manly and thorough-going in whatever heundertakes, whether it be the transaction of business or romping withhis children.But, besides this, the multitudinosity of the Browns cuts in twodirections. If there are so many of them green-grocers, butchers, andmilkmen--who without sufficient reason are thought to be unromantic--itwill be found that they are equally numerous in other walks of life; andwherever they walk they do so coolly, deliberately, good-humouredly, andvery practically. Look at the learned professions, for instance. Whata host of Browns are there. The engineers and contractors too, how theyswarm in their lists. If you want to erect a suspension bridge over theBritish Channel, the only man who is likely to undertake the job for youis Adam Brown, C.E., and Abel Brown will gladly provide the materials.As to the army, here their name is legion; they compose an army ofthemselves; and they are all enthusiasts--but quiet, steady-going, notnoisy or boastful enthusiasts. In fact, the romance of Brown consistsvery much in his willingness to fling himself, heart and soul, intowhatever his hand finds to do. The man who led the storming party, andachieved immortal glory by getting himself riddled to death withbullets, was Lieutenant Brown--better known as Ned Brown by his brotherofficers, who could not mention his name without choking for weeks afterhis sad but so-called glorious fall. The other man who accomplishedthe darling wish of his heart--to win the Victoria Cross--by attaching abag of gunpowder to the gate of the fortress and blowing it and himselfto atoms to small that no shred of him big enough to hang the VictoriaCross upon was ever found, was Corporal Brown, and there was scarcely adry eye in the regiment when he went down. Less