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disjointed state both of my body and mind; but then the blessed reward was at hand! I faltered 'good night,' and before the echoing footsteps of the chamberlain had died away, I was lying between homespun sheets white as Wordsworth's milky Rylstone Doe, and had already commenced a twelve-hours' snore..

"I was awakened in the morning by a continued kicking and thumping at the door, accompanied by shrill calls of 'Cousin Charley.' Not perfectly conscious at first, and dreaming I was at the desk, I said, as if answering a question- Yes, sir. Cr. by cash, £249. 58. 8d. Commission 88. Nay, it's gone ten tu hours sin, and moother's i' th' fidgets about what ails yer. Du come, Charley !' replied the voice of the rouser, catching the last word, and probably thinking I asked whether it was not eight o'clock. I'm coming,' growled I, audibly as my parched tongue and mouth permitted. Pacified by this, off scampered cousin Somebody. But it was a long come, for I arose stiff as an unoiled automaton, and though I had no motion in my tongue, still it was extremely like one of Sibthorpe's motions, and every body knows they do not lack energetic gesticulations. Rather paradoxical, eh? Well, I pass over this noon-tide Christmas-day breakfast, merely observing that it was gulped down amidst the compressed tittering of a house full of gimblet-eyed cousins, who bored my shame face so cruelly, that in my haste to end the exhibition I swallowed scalding hot coffee, which had the immediate effect of compelling a tearful extempore cobbler's dance on my part. A glorious 'groaning' dinner shortly followed, and but that we are told

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I should be inclined to say it was a gastronomic feast fit for her gracious Majesty.

"The afternoon was spent in looking at portraits of great farmers and greater oxen, in the house; and turnip fields and agricultural machines out of it. When we returned, a goodly assemblage of shining afternoon faces shone round a prototype of king Arthur's table, like 'the starry hosts around the full bright moon,' as Homer has it. Among them were some score of old and young guests invited from the neighbouring hamlet. Knowing they would expect the Lon'oner' to open some topic or other, after bowing to them, I pointed to one of the many festoons of bird's eggs hanging from the beams overhead, and said-'How pretty plover's eggs are!' No one immediately

answered, but the remark drew all eyes hard upon me. Thinking they were surprised that I should know plover's eggs, I smiled, and continued, with condescending urbanity- Tremendous numbers are sold in our Covent-garden market in the season.' -'What did you say, Charley?' stammered my uncle, sich as them sold in Lon'on? Yes; I've bought them myself.''The d-l you have-why then they did you brown as a gipsey, that's all. They're crows' eggs-crows' eggs, I say!'-Some few of the staider portion of the company did me the compliment to look demure, but the dread majority-behaved like what they were. This over, I was beginning to feel at ease, when a trifling incident once more discomposed me. My uncle very innocently exclaimed, as he munched a piece of his own plum cake,— Capital cake this !'-'Ay,' said my aunt, 'I knew you'd like it; it's just your age.' I set down my cup in mute astonishment, and looked from face to face, but every body eat and drank as if nothing but what was perfectly commonplace had been uttered. On this I ventured to observe,- Why, aunt, you really don't mean to say the cake is as old as my uncle?' Fresh bursts of merriment from all around was for a while the only answer, and when I could no longer dissemble my indignation, they informed me she had only meant it had just been baked so many days as mellowed it to his tooth-ergo, just his age was equivalent to just the age he liked cake to be before he ate it. But I grow tedious," suddenly interrupting himself, his quick eye having noticed a slight yawn I involuntarily made. "Oh, by no means, pray proceed."

"I will,” rejoined he, drawing his chair still nigher, and glancing at his five guinea lever, he resumed with, "my stay must be very brief, I perceive; and, of consequence, the remainder of my story too. Therefore, I must do what under any circumstances perhaps would be the best-leave much to your own imagination.

my

"Games of which I knew nothing (and consequently always enacted a ridiculous part in), and stories, filled up the evening; uncle twice telling me about an Irishman making a whole sheet of paper out of half of one, by slitting it down with his sickle! He seemed to enjoy the oft-told tale quite as much as the rest, but for my own part, everything seemed ordered to mortify me. When I repeated a capital joke as one of my own, the laugh was instantaneously turned against me by a pert young minx exclaiming, quick as thought, 'That's in Punch!? Steam and steel-pens! but this was unendurable! Who would have thought of Punch' grinning in such a diabolical out-of

the-world place as this? And had I come all the way from Lombard-street to be exposed to laughter in all I said or did in a barbarous Lincolnshire fen? Confounded as I was, I strove to pass it off, by saying, with a heart-belying smile,- Ah! no library is complete now-a-days without Punch.'' 'Right, sir,' rejoined my tormentor, and none is complete with it either!' Again did the unmeaning goggle go round at my expense, and by this time I felt so thoroughly cowed and cut up, that I could not summon courage to once interrupt an old farmer, who drawled out a hideous tale, longer than that of the great comet's of 1811.

"You may conceive, sir, what the rest of my visit was-an unvaried series of painful blunders and mishaps; yet mind, I do not blame either uncle, aunt, or 'legion' of cousins, as I believe they meant to make it very agreeable, and for that at least I owe them a debt of gratitude; but unfortunately their good intentions were so stupidly put forth, that nothing resulted to me but disappointment and distress. Instance the second day of my visit! Three or four of my cousins, with the best meaning in the world, endeavoured to instil into me the requisite knowledge for working the hay-cutting machine, and persuaded me to attempt to do so after them. The result was, I cut my left thumb half off. Nor was that all. I wished to have it tied up as it was, but they would hear of no such thing, insisting that I would submit for it to be done with some infallible oil which my aunt declared would heal it 'in no time.' I need scarcely add that this application produced intense agony, such as I shall never forget. Another day I got my ancle mangled by inadvertently setting my foot in a rabbit trap in one of the fields we were crossing; and the next after that, I was soused over head and ears in a half-frozen, muddy dike, which I attempted to leap over after my cousins.

"These are only specimens of the vexations I endured, and really they were tenfold enhanced by the pretended condolence I received. However, they all vowed I should not leave the Fen for a month at least, but I quietly gave them the slip one midnight, having bribed a ploughboy to convey me to Boston in a cart (and a most infernal jolter it proved).

66

There, sir! I have given you a brief and imperfect sketch of my visit to my dear country cousins; and, believe me, there was but one thing connected with the trip which gave me satisfaction on my return."

"And that was

?"

"The consoling conviction, that when they should accept my

invitation to stare at the sights of London, how triumphantly would the tables be turned! But," continued he, rising, "I must bid you 'good evening.""

"First, let me thank you for your obliging narrative," said I; "and, if you will not consider me too presuming, permit me to advise you to try to impart some portion of your city shrewdness to your country friends, and in return freely avail yourself of their valuable experience, and practical knowledge of much that is of vital importance in life, and I doubt not both sides will find themselves greatly benefited thereby."

"I will think of your words," rejoined he dryly; and, calling the waiter, he paid him-carefully buttoned up his coat-again significantly thanked me for my advice-and bowed farewell. Somehow or other a strange misgiving came over me after his departure. I recalled to mind what a "laughing devil" occasionally gleamed in his eye, and for the first time it struck me that some of the expressions and allusions he made, were singular ones in the mouth of a cockney. So, recalling the waiter, I inquired if he knew my late companion? "Knew him!"

Alack! alack! and woe the day! too well did he know him for the cleverest rogue upon town! a fellow with as many alias's as a cat has lives, and who had by heart an hundred times more wicked tales than pussy has harmless ones. This intelligence was a thunderstroke to me, for the reason of the superlatively artful rascal amusing me with a ready-coined story, and keeping my attention on it while he drew his chair nigher and nigher, was now obvious. My pocket-book! with Bank of England bills to the tune of two hundred pounds— a legacy which my family (relying as implicitly on my discretion as Oliver Goldsmith's Primrose's did on that of Moses) had entrusted me to go up to town to receive-ay, my pocket-book! my pocket-book! Don't you feel for me, reader?

For awhile I leant back motionless, from sheer want of courage to boldly know the worst at once, and when I did recover speech, it was only to look an annihilation at the waiter, while I thundered, "Then why didn't you tell me before? Why not, you villain? You're leagued with him! that's the reason! that's the reason!" For a moment the poor fellow's cheek flushed, but with habitual self-command, he civilly replied, "You haven't yet felt whether you have lost anything, sir." A desperate plunge of my hand into the secret depths of my outer vesture was the instant rejoinder, and—the pocket-book was safe, and all in it! Next I explored for my full purse-'twas gone!

Did I rave?-did I stamp ?-did I weep? No, dear reader, I did none of these; but I laughed wildly outright. I'll tell you why. When I first entered the room-none being in but my cockney I sat down and pulling out a then empty purse, filled it with a carefully wrapt packet to all appearance containing sovereigns. They were round cough lozenges!

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I sincerely begged the waiter's pardon for my hasty, unjust accusation, and putting into his hand a more substantial proof of contrition than mere breath, hurried out of the house and out of the city, perfectly convinced that so long as I remained in it, so long was my legacy in jeopardy of going where the testator never dreamt of.

Gentle ones-ye that need it-reject not harshly a closing morsel of unfeigned advice. Heed not the honey-dropping tongue of a stranger, even though it maketh an heaven of earth and angels of earth's dwellers!

THE MERCHANT'S TALISMAN.

A TALE OF VENICE.

From the French of M. Paul de Musset.

BY G. J. KNOX, ESQ.

CHAPTER I.

VENICE has ever been the stronghold of marvellous adventures and romantic tales. The story which is now presented to the reader, was related to the author, some months ago, in a café of the square of Saint Mark, by one of those good-for-nothing, agreeable nocturnal ramblers, so common in Italy, who can never make up their minds to return home to bed before the bells are ringing for matins throughout the city.

Fifty years ago, Louis Manino being Doge, the magnificent Seigniory still existed in name, though proceeding at giant strides towards its dissolution. Industry, commerce, fortune, government, were all sinking into the abyss that was yawning to receive them; the fine arts were giving forth their last sigh, and as to morals, they were in such a dilapidated condition that the rhymsters of Florence called Venice the naughty place of Italy. This spoiled child could not fail of being soon put under strict

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