"O yes,

lamb," said I, "art thou not almost perished?" pa," said she, "I'm all goose flesh." "Ah, my dear," said I, "I wish there was not a greater goose in the house; thou art only a goose outwardly, whereas"-but happening to look round I espied Experience, and did not think it needful to pursue the discourse any further. I have already remarked that Marmaduke had also become infected with the prevailing disease, the mania of gentility. I had suspected this for some time before he ventured to ask me, after some coughing and stammering, whether I did not think he might as well try to get into business. "Get into business, my son," said I, "why art thou not in business already?-a cultivator of the earth-the business of the first man in paradise, and out of it; a business advocated by the good and wise of all ages; a business by which Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, became rich and great?" I had got upon a favourite subject, and might probably have continued the discourse for some time, but was stopped by Experience, who had overheard us. "As

to what Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, did," said she, "it is neither here nor there; if they made money by farming, pork and flour must have fetched a better price then than now: 'tis like there might have been a French war, or a hurricane in the West Indies, or a scarcity in Ireland, or something else uncommon, to raise the price; but for a young man like our Marmaduke to go for to slave his life out in raising things that won't sell for nothing, 'tis a shame. Look at the gentlemen that go up and down in the steamboat; they don't look as if they had been creeping twelve hours a day after a plough. No; they follow

something more genteeler, and more profitabler too, I guess, or they could n't afford to be always coasting about so." "Yes," said I, "I have looked at these same gentlemen travellers, and a wearisome sight it is to behold the crowds of idlers continually passing to and fro; and in such extreme haste, too, that boilers must be heated to the verge of explosion, and horses lashed with savage severity, when in all likelihood the sole business of one half of them, on arriving at the place of destination, is to return again; but as to Marmaduke's business, if it must be so, the first thing needful is a small capital. I should not mind selling the field over the road-it is rather unhandy, and might be spared." "Selling the old worn-out field!" said Experience; "and who, I wonder, would buy it? No-borrow at once a handsome sum, and mortgage the farm; Marmaduke's profits will soon enable us to repay it, and we shall keep the property unbroken." This advice seemed to be palatable; however, the truth is, that, whether palatable and reasonable or not, the advice of Experience is commonly sure to prevail. The money was borrowed, and my son established in business, in connection with Marcus Junius Snipitoff, the son of our cousin Moses. Experience was now in her element; what with visitations to Seraphina, and the superintendence of Marmaduke's establishment, she was ever on the go, and her time too fully occupied to attend to her own domestic affairs, which prospered accordingly. However, as to poor Marmaduke, his establishment, as indeed might have been foreseen, soon came to an "extermination," as Seraphina says. Whether young Snipitoff snipped off more of the common stock

than was commendable, I know not; certain it is that the whole soon vanished like the "base fable of a vision," as Seraphina says, and I was glad to escape from the wreck with the loss of half my estate. Having been benefited so little in my own case, by the facility of intercourse and the multiplication of the means of indulging a gadding disposition, it may be supposed that I regard with no particular complacency the efforts that are making to scatter these conveniences over our country in every direction, insomuch that in a short time an honest man may hardly be able to stir about his lawful business, without danger of tumbling into a canal or breaking his shins over a railway. However, I oppose them not; these excavations and constructions will doubtless fill for a time "the mouth of labour," let the pockets of the projector and stockholder fare as they may; and my learned old friend Alexander Scraggletop Barelikit, the schoolmaster-formerly of Mucklestonechoakthrapple, in Aberdeenshire, says, that “anent thae warks, he has nae doot in his ain privat mind but that, by farcelitatin' intercoorse, they may ten' to devilloup our resoorces, an' gie muckle exheeliration to the march of ceevelisation in the oot-lyin' wildernesses."

DESUNT CETERA.

1828.

WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF A YOUNG FRIEND.

Mind thy own business,-this perhaps may seem
Language unmeet for such a page as this-

But 'tis no trifling business, and I deem

Advice to mind it at no time amiss.

Mind thy own business—thou hast time assigned thee,
And all-important labour to be done;

Let not the shadows of the evening find thee,
And this great work perhaps not yet begun.

Mind thy own business-then, as it flies o'er thee,
Shall every moment smiles approving wear;
Eternity's vast ocean roll before thee

Serene and peace attend thy progress there.

[A number of small engravings for one of his young relatives were sent to the author, with a request that he would write something appropriate to each. He returned them with the following pieces, but without any view to publication.]

ON A PICTURE OF A CHILD FALLING FROM A BOAT

INTO THE WATER.

Along old Ocean's shelving side

With eager step the plovers roam,

And with parental care provide

For their loved nestlings safe at home.

O'er the blue waters, high in air,

The wild duck squadrons ride the gale,
While others, tired of sporting there,
On dancing billows, joyous, sail.

But who is he-yon wretched child?
Down headlong, from his tottering boat,

To death descending, dark and wild

The waters soon shall o'er him float.

Perhaps, but late, a mother's arm

Was flung in doating fondness round him,

Perhaps her love, foreseeing harm,

Warned him to shun the fate that found him.