lies became engaged in its trade, and shared in its prosperity, and although age was making serious inroads upon the two elders, and they began to wax feeble, yet they managed to preserve their influence even over the stranger part of our population, and no change of any importance was concluded on until it had received their sanction.

Thus matters proceeded for a period of six years or upwards after the reconciliation of the two families, and Our Village attained a great degree of prosperity.

At length we took it into our heads that we ought to have a fair and a market. In country places, especially places resembling Our Village, the creature of yesterday, legal forms of establishing a fair or a market are not much regarded, even if it ever occurs to any one that such things are necessary. In our case we were not sufficiently learned to be mystified, and so we called a meeting, and resolved, like men of business, that we would have an annual fair and a weekly market.

The project was nearly knocked on the head by some meddling fellow remarking, "That as people would bring produce and goods from a distance to our fairs and markets, we ought to have a Market-Hall and a MarketPlace, which would cost money."

For a moment this threw us all a-back, but we recollected that some village, not more than thirty miles from us, had a Market-Place, and as we had individually resolved, before coming to the meeting, that we would have a fair and a market, and as we had collectively, at the meeting, resolved the same thing, we even put a good face on the matter, and, in a postscript to our resolutions, resolved that we would have a Market-Hall and a Market-Place; and to put the matter in a tangible shape, we forth. with commenced a subscription for the

We proceeded to give notice to all the world, by advertising in the public newspapers, and otherwise, that an annual fair and a weekly market would in future be held in Our Village, and that the first fair would commence on a given day, and continue a week; and to it we invited all farmers, clothiers, horse-dealers, drovers, and all others having cattle or goods of any description to dispose of or to buy; and all keepers of menageries, showmen, tumblers, fiddlers, dancers, jugglers, ballad-singers, hurdygurdy players, fire-eaters, and all others capable of making fun, or willing to be amused.

Great indeed were our anticipations, and fearful the bustle of preparation! Our Market-Hall was complete a full fortnight before the time, and it was with singular satisfaction that we listened to the enquiries of strangers about our fair, and heard their account of the great influx of tradesmen and visiters that would attend it.

As the important day approached our excitement became greater, until at length the majority of us were in a perfect fever of expectation; and when, two days previous to the day appointed for opening the fair, a waggon was announced as entering Our Village, laden with commodities for sale on the occasion, our ecstasy knew no bounds. The entire population turned out on the occasion, and amidst the shouts and acclamations of the adults, and the yells and screams of the juvenile part of our community, the waggon was conveyed to the ground upon which the fair was intended to be held, and there took up a position as important in our estimation as any occupied by an army on the eve of a serious battle.

The first waggon was speedily followed by others, and the workers in linen, and in woollen, and in silk, and in cotton, and in iron, and in brass, not lacking a bountiful supply of the children of Israel, cunning in works of gold, and of silver, and precious stones (or what they pretended were such, which to us was much the same thing), poured into Our Village, and also took up allotted positions on the ground appointed for the fair.

During the whole of that day and the day following, which was the one immediately preceding the fair, and during the nights of those two days, there was a continued stream of people entering Our Village, accompanied by

2 A

conveyances of all kinds, and laden with articles of all descriptions.

A goodly company of men from Yorkshire, knowing in horses and in beeves, also attended, and brought with them a variety of stock; and there came also, in odd-looking vehicles, goods of all sorts-tents for refreshments-artists in confectionary-establishments of millinery-toy-shopsshows for the old and the youngtumblers-rope-dancers-jugglers fortune-tellers, and all those various nondescript trades, businesses, sights, and wonders, that constitute that omnium-gatherum a country fair.

They were all marshalled in due order on the ground appointed for the fair, and thence, until the following morning, all was breathless expectation, waiting anxiously for the moment when the fair was to be opened and the fun and the carnival to commence; and so absorbed we were in this to us important business, that no inhabitant of Our Village presumed on that anxious night to close the eyes in sleep.

On the morning of the fair crowds of strangers, dressed in their holiday clothes, entered Our Village, and an assemblage of those who usually took the lead amongst us, including Adonijah and Ichabod, having gone upon the ground and formally announced the commencement of the fair, its business, its pleasures, and its frolics were not long ere they burst forth in all their glory.

Silks and satins and gay ribbons were soon seen fluttering in the air. Stalls were covered with wares of all descriptions, exhibiting the glittering variety of a bazaar with the regularity of a shop. The various showmen announced their wonderful performances in right stentorian voices, and the yelling of wild beasts, mingled with the shouts of a delighted populace and the noise of drums, trumpets, bagpipes, cymbals, gongs, fiddles, fifes, and all the other instruments that are to be found at such an assemblage-some blown with the lungs of Boreas himself, and others beat with the hearty goodwill of a Cyclops-united in forming such a dinning and stupifying noise as had never been heard in Our Village before, and, as we verily believed, never in any other place out of the infernal regions.

The various shows and exhibitions gave wonderful satisfaction. The

people were almost tickled into convulsions at the freaks of Mister Punch, but there was a company of tumblers that secured to themselves the patronage of the public by the untiring grimaces, the singular antics, and the witty drollery of their Merry andrew. He had a good-humoured joke for every body, and, singular enough, his jokes were remarkably applicable to the persons to whom addressed, or of whom uttered; and when he said nothing he looked so irresistibly droll, and moved his body about with contortions so comic, that if the spectator had the smallest particle of fun in his composition, he could not resist his inclination to laugh and be amused.

Company crowded to the booth at which the good-natured Merryandrew exhibited, and the performance within must have been quite as satisfactory as the exhibition without, for every body came out delighted; and the excellence of the performance and the special drollery of the Merryandrew became an universal theme.

Thus closed the first day of our fair. Every body appeared satisfied. The sellers had met with good sale for their goods, and the purchasers were satisfied with their bargains. Those who attended for amusement expressed themselves highly gratified, and those who furnished the amusement appeared satisfied with the remuneration they had received; and on the morning of the second day people met with pleasant faces, and made their arrangements for again pursuing the business or the amusements of the fair.

Adonijah and Ichabod, after attending the ceremony of opening the fair, had retired from the bustle; but on the second day, having heard so good an account of the first, they agreed to walk through it together, and to take Kesiah betwixt them under their joint protection.

They accordingly went and viewed all its wonders-looked at the stores of goods arranged in beautiful and tasteful order, and admired and wondered at each thing they saw, and at the vast company collected together. They strolled on, gazing at this thing and at that, until they found themselves opposite to the booth where the facetious Merryandrew was amusing a delighted audience. There he was, in all the dignity of paint and tinsel,

twisting himself about in the most singularly droll evolutions, and exhibit ing a face that defied gravity herself to maintain her stoic indifference, and dealing witticisms right and left that drew forth shouts of laughter from the assembled multitude.

Adonijah and Ichabod pressed through the crowd and got to the front, with Kesiah betwixt them linking an arm with each.

Wild were the antics and the jests of the Merryandrew, and wild were the delighted screams of the spectators; but he caught a glimpse of Kesiah and her companions-his mirth ceased he rolled off the stage on which he stood, and knelt at the feet of the group. The facetious Merryandrew was the long lost Nehemiah Wragg!

It would be in vain to attempt to describe the scene that ensued. Kesiah sank down in a swoon, and her two aged companions were in little better condition. Some friends who were present conveyed the whole party away to the house of Adonijah; and the wonderful return of Nehemiah Wragg being soon spread through the village, all the relatives on both sides were soon assembled there to satisfy themselves of the truth of his re-appearance.

Nehemiah had a long tale to tella long account to give of sufferings and privations, and a very small per contra account of enjoyments, during the time he had been away from Our Village.

He at first, it appeared, had travelled as far from his native home as his money would enable him to do without stopping. He then got work as a farm-labourer, which, after some time, he quitted, and entered into the service of a gentleman as groom. He remained in that capacity until his master died, after which he was reduced to great distress, and joined a company of strolling players-the whole party were taken into custody, and imprisoned as rogues and vagabonds; and after his liberation he had a narrow escape of being enlisted for a soldier, but instead of that got employment as a hand in a coasting vessel. There he remained some time, at very hard work and for very little wages, and was ultimately wrecked. Quitting the sea, he assumed the original occupation of his father, and traversed the

country as an itinerant tinker, and ultimately he joined the company with which he visited Our Village, to whom his wit and drollery rendered him a valuable acquisition, though his heart was frequently ready to burst with anguish when he appeared the very personification of mirth and jollity.

During the whole time of his absence he had heard no tidings of Kesiah nor of his own family, and knowing the implacable enmity that existed betwixt his father and Adonijah, he saw little chance that good would result from any enquiry he might institute. He had, therefore, remained silent, and striven with might and main to forget Our Village and all that it contained. But that might not be; for, in the midst of his hardships, and in the hour of his deepest distress, a figure was present to his fancy, and floating visions passed before him in his dreams, bearing comfort to him, and telling him of happiness to come, and that figure was always prominent in the scenes that were at those times pictured to his imagination, and always promoted and shared in the blessings that he in fancy enjoyed.

It cannot, therefore, be surprising that when Nehemiah, by an accident, heard of the rapid increase of Our Village, and of the fair intended to be holden there, he prevailed on his companions to travel a considerable distance out of their way to attend it; trusting, as he did, that he should have some opportunity to see Kesiah, and entertaining an undefined hope that something would occur favourable to his wishes. With what did occur the reader is acquainted.

The business of the fair progressed most satisfactorily to all parties, and even the company with whom Nehemiah came to the village, although they regretted the loss of their companion, did not suffer whilst with us from his abduction, for every indivi. dual of the village appeared to make it a point of conscience to visit the scene of Nehemiah's drolleries, and thus compensated to the company for the loss of his exertions.

At length the fair was at an end, and all parties were delighted. The sellers and buyers, and the whole tribe of amusers and amusees expressed their pleasure; and we were gratified because we had gained our great point of establishing a fair. A market fol

lowed, as a matter of course; and a fair and a market there have been from that time to this, and are likely to continue.

The bustle and excitement of our great undertaking being over, the people of Our Village had leisure to think of something else, and they rushed almost in a body to congratulate Nehemiah and Kesiah. The two families of Shufflebotham and Wragg manfully came forward to take the stroller by the hand, and placed him in business with themselves, and an immediate marriage was concluded upon betwixt the two, who, it was well known, had long been united in heart.

And such a marriage it was! No nonsensical parade-no affected postponement-no driving away to spend some time out of the sight and hearing of their friends. No! the Wednesday after the fair was named for the wedding, and publicly announced in the village, and we all thought that we had not only a right, but that it was our bounden duty to be present.

On the morning of the wedding Nehemiah and Kesiah walked to the altar, accompanied by every one of their respective families, and followed by the entire of Our Village, man, woman, and child, that was able to walk. We considered it a holiday, and we made it a feast.

After the ceremony we all accompanied them back to the house of Adonijah Shufflebotham, and there the whole multitude pronounced a loud and a fervent blessing upon them, and departed.

Such was their wedding, and they were blessed-blessed in their fortunes, for they have been prosperous—and in their family, for they have children, who are virtuous and properous also.

Adonijah Shufflebotham and Icha

bod Wragg lived several years after that, and saw their children and their children's children flourishing about them, and at length sank into the grave, full of years, and carrying with them the respect and the reverence of their survivors-a proof that although a man may commence life in error, he may, by the Divine assistance, terminate it satisfactorily.

Nehemiah and Kesiah are still living, though life is with them getting into the sere and yellow leaf. Nehemiah has partly retired from active business, in order to make way for his sons.

In the mean-time the prosperity of the two families of Shufflebotham and Wragg has gone on increasing, and various intermarriages have taken place amongst them, so that they have, in more respects than one, become one united family.

The prosperity of Our Village has gone on in the same ratio, and many improvements have taken place. Our Village is made the centre of a parish by Act of Parliament, and we have only just escaped being made a borough.

Our trade and our manufactures have increased; we have lighted our streets with gas, and we intend to lay down a railway to connect us with some important place; but we cannot at present make up our minds as to the particular place with which we will be connected.

In the midst of our prosperity and our change there are very few now left who know any thing, even by tradition, of the origin of Our Village; and as the writer of this considers himself to be nearly the last possessed of that information, he has thus recorded it for the benefit aud edification of the future generations who may become Our Village's inhabitants.

MY DEAR ALPHONSE,

I HAVE several hundred times repented of my promise to tell you all I shall have heard, felt, and understood during the London "glorious days" of June; so fortunate a companionship for our three "glorious days" of July. However, I at length have braced up my indolence for the task, and if you find it intolerable, ennuyant, detestable, &c., let yourself and your importunity bear the blame. In revenge, I shall tell you every thing as it occurred, every thing as I saw it, every thing that came before me, new, odd, or extravagant, in a scene which was new even to the English, and in a country where every thing was new to your very diligent, very devoted, and, at present, very much tired friend.

Cards for the ceremony of the young Queen's putting on the diadem had been sent to the ambassador for distribution among us. But, as it was left to our own choice to use them or not; as I had imbibed an alarming idea of sitting for twelve mortal hours in a cold cathedral, larger than Notre Dame, and as (you will own the final reason to be irresistible) I had been strongly tempted by the beautiful Lady B- to solicit the ambassador for one of his tickets, and had failed, I was only too happy to lay mine at the lady's feet, and trust to my own in the streets for the day.

To acquaint my inexperience with. the locale, I walked down the principal avenues which the programme marked for the procession a couple of days before. This was the 26th of June, the day first appointed for the ceremony. But the Tories, who assist the Cabinet in all cases of difficulty, and settle the affairs of the Government on all occasions at their will, assisted them on this, and ordered that they should postpone the procession till the 28th, thus saving them from one of the sullen and rainy days of the season, and appointing one of the finest in its stead. In Paris we have a good

London, June 26.

deal of the advantages of an Opposition, but the English are our masters in politics still, and it will be long before ours can bespeak sunshine and settle the weather.

One of the things that struck me most on my first arrival in London was the immensity of the multitude, and its perpetual action. I involuntarily asked myself a hundred times, where do all these people come from? how do they exist? or what business is it that keeps them in this eternal movement? The idea of any one's hiring a couple of straw chairs and sitting down to look round him, in one of the streets, probably never came into the head of any individual of the million and a half who rush hourly along the tide of life in London. Even the coffeehouses have no idlers gaping round the doors, or sipping ices and lemonade within. All is done as a matter of business. There are even no idlers in the Parks, the Tuilleries and Champs Elysees of this monstermetropolis. There the passengers are as much in motion as every where else, and except at the hour when the world of fashion ride for an appetite before dinner, there is no promenade. Sunday makes a distinction, but then the Englishman walks, only because he has nothing to run after. In short, London is as unlike Paris as possible -a vast locomotive engine.

But for the week before the coronation the crowd was overwhelming; the provinces poured their flow into the capital, the coaches and diligences from the country were packed up with men, women, and children, like waggons with bales and boxes; they were huge beehives flying at the rate of ten miles an hour. Steam-boats, railroads, canals, all were in activity, and all pouring the country population into the streets. It was calculated that they added nearly half a million to the daily numbers of London.

Though it rained, blew, and gloomed with what Voltaire called the " usual