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sons who were less gifted. In the first place, it was granted on all sides that we were going down hill; and in the next, it was not to be denied that every one of our quadrupeds, from the testimony of his knees, was wofully addicted to stumbling. Now I had always considered it as an axiom that a horse was more likely to tumble down hill than up hill, and that an overdriven one had no sort of conscience whatever. Consequently it was incumbent on me to use all proper circumspection, seeing that I had six ladies and all the dishes to answer for, besides a seventh person whom etiquette forbids me to mention.

The caution which I had adopted was equally necessary for my competitors, and, since they were cursed with too much courage to follow it, the chances were about fifty to one that one of them would measure his length upon the ground. The other must, of course, pull up to assist his comrade, and in this dilemma I had settled it with my high-mettled skeleton that we should politely wish them good night.

I believe it was about mid-way that my cal

culations were verified. I first heard a crash, then a general scream, then the word of command to halt, and afterwards the jolly "Ho, ho, ho!" of Mr. D., which gave me the satisfactory intelligence that my enemies had come to a downfall, and that none of the party had experienced bodily injury.

Now was the time for my triumph, but I must say I bore it like a hero. I was beginning an admonitory harangue with "I told you how it would be," when the sight of their distress completely disarmed me. The noble steed still lay panting upon the ground, while the captain cut the harness to pieces for his liberation: the two shafts had snapped off like sticks of barley-sugar, and the whole machinery appeared to have received a shock irreparable.

“How shall we get home?" cried the distressed heroines; 66 we cannot sleep under the

hedge."

"Beg pardon, ladies,” replied Mr. D.,“ it is one of the most comfortable ditches I was ever pitched into I went right in upon my

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head and received no manner of damage, ex

cepting a tug of the pigtail which hung in a bramble, and a few thorns which took advan tage of the absence of my buck-skins."

My heart melted within me, and I agreed with the opposition carrier that if he would convey the vanquished champion and the ponderosity of Mr. D., I would endeavour to persuade my horse to accommodate the five forlorn damsels. The proposal was thankfully agreed to. The fragments of the wreck were removed to the road-side, the miserable hack turned into the first field that presented itself, and I finished the remainder of the journey with eleven ladies and not a single accident.

Having thus immortalized myself in my debut in pic-nics, I must inform my reader, in confidence, that I never intend to risk the laurels which were so hardly obtained; for, independently of a notion which still haunts me that both the warriors are in reality much better whips than myself, and that the next opportunity would make it appear, I suffered so excessively from fear, anxiety, broiling, and dislocation, that I lay for many days under serious apprehensions of a consumption; and

am strictly commanded by the faculty that my next act of vagrancy be committed in a vehicle drawn by four post-horses, and dancing upon springs of the newest invention.

CHATELAR.

He would wait the hour

When her lamp lightened in the tower;
'Twas something yet, if, as she pass'd,
Her shade was o'er the lattice cast.

SCOTT.

THERE are no mysteries into which we are so fond of diving as the mysteries of the heart. The hero of the best novel in the world, if he could not condescend to fall in love, might march through his three volumes and excite no more sensation than his grandmother; and a newspaper without an elopement, or a breach of promise, has no news at all.

It is not my desire to affect any singular exception from established tastes, and I am ready to confess that the next best thing to being in love one's self is to speculate on the hopes and fears and fates of others. Il tide the heart that has no sympathy for the little schemes and subterfuges, which form the only romance of a world so matter of fact !—I have

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