I came down to the creek, and as the old mare stopped to drink I could hear the water rippling over the pebbles afare ye well, brother Watkins—ah! And even the little fishes, as their bright fins glistened in the sunlight, I thought, gathered around to say, as best they could-fare ye well, brother Watkins-ah! I was slowly passing up the hill, meditating upon the sad vicissitudes and mutations of life, when suddenly out bounded a big hog from a fence-corner, with aboo! aboo! and I came to the ground with my saddle-bag by my side. As I lay in the dust of the road my id gray mare ran up the hill, and as she turned the top she waved her tail back at me, seemingly to say-fare ye wel', brother Watkins — ah! I tell you, my brethering, it is affecting times to part with a congregation you have been with for over thirty years—ah!

102. A CATASTROPHE.

On a pine woodshed, in an alley dark, where scattered moonbeams, shifting through a row of tottering chimneys and awnings torn and drooping, fell, strode back and forth, with stiff and tense-drawn muscles and peculiar tread, a cat. His name was Norval; on yonder neighboring sheds his father caught the rats that came in squads from the streets beyond Dupont, in search of food and strange adventure. Grim war he courted, and his twisted tail and spine upheaving in fantastic curves, and claws distended, and ears flatly pressed against a head thrown back defiantly, told of impending strife. With eyes a-gleam and screeching blasts of war, and steps as silent as the falling dew, young Norval crept along the splintered edge, and gazed a moment through the darkness down, with tail awag triumphantly. Then with an imprecation and a growl-perhaps an oath in direst vengeance hissed- he started back, and crooking his body like a letter S, or like a U inverted (n), stood in

fierce expectancy. 'Twas well. With eyeballs glaring and ears aslant, and open mouth, in which two rows of fangs stood forth in sharp and dread conformity, slap up a post from out the dark below, a head appeared. A dreadful tocsin of determined strife young Norval uttered, then, with a face unblanched and mustache standing straight before his nose, and tail flung wildly to the passing breeze, stepped back in cautious invitation to the foe. Approaching each other, with preparations dire, each cat surveyed the vantage of the field. Around they walked, tails uplifted and backs high in air, while from their mouths, in accents hissing with consuming rage, dropped brief but awful sentences of hate. Twice around they went in circle, each eye upon the foe intently bent, then sideways moving, as is wont with cats, gave one long-drawn, terrific, savage yeow, and buckled in.

103. BUZFUZ VERSUS PICKWICK.-Charles Dickens.

You have heard from my learned friend, gentlemen of the jury, that this is an action for a breach of promise of marriage, in which the damages are laid at fifteen hundred pounds. The plaintiff, gentlemen, is a widow-yes, gentlemen, a widow. The late Mr. Bardell, some time before his death, became the father, gentlemen, of a little boy. With this little boy, the only pledge of her departed exciseman, Mrs. Bardell shrunk from the world, and courted the retirement and tranquillity of Goswell street; and here she placed in her front parlor window a written placard, bearing this inscription: "Apartments furnished, for a single gentleman. Inquire within." Mrs. Bardell's opinions of the opposite sex, gentlemen, were derived from a long contemplation of the inestimable qualities of her lost husband. She had no fear she had no distrust all was confidence and reliance. "Mr. Bardell," said the widow," was a man

of honor, Mr. Bardell was a man of his word,- Mr. Bardell was no deceiver,- Mr. Bardell was once a single gentleman himself; to single gentlemen I look for protection, for assistance, for comfort, and for consolation; — in single gentlemen I shall perpetually see something to remind me of what Mr. Bardell was, when he first won my young and untried affections; to a single gentleman, then, shall my lodgings be let."

Actuated by this beautiful and touching impulse (among the best impulses of our imperfect nature, gentlemen), the lonely and desolate widow dried her tears, furnished her first floor, caught her innocent boy to her maternal bosom, and put the bill up in her parlor window. Did it remain there long? No. The serpent was on the watch; the train was laid; the mine was preparing; the sapper and miner was at work! Before the bill had been in the parlor window three days-three days, gentlemen—a being, erect upon two legs, and bearing all the outward semblance of a man, and not of a monster, knocked at the door of Mrs. Bardell's house. He inquired within, he took the lodgings, and on the very next day he entered into possession of them. This man was Pickwick - Pickwick the defendant.

Of this man I will say little. The subject presents but few attractions; and I, gentlemen, am not the man, nor are you, gentlemen, the men, to delight in the contemplation of revolting heartlessness, and of systematic villainy. I say systematic villainy, gentlemen; and when I say systematic villainy, let me tell the defendant, Pickwick, if he be in court, as I am informed he is, that it would have been more decent in him, more becoming, if he had stopped away. Let me tell him, further, that a counsel, in the discharge of his duty, is neither to be intimidated, nor bullied, nor put down; and that any attempt to do either the one or the other will recoil on the head of the attempter, be he plain.

tiff or be he defendant; be his name Pickwick, or Noakes, or Stoakes, or Stiles, or Brown, or Thompson.

I shall show you, gentlemen, that for two years Pickwick continued to reside constantly, and without any interruption or intermission, at Mrs. Bardell's house. I shall show you that Mrs. Bardell, during the whole of that time, waited on him, attended to his comforts, cooked his meals, looked out his linen for the washer woman when it went abroad, darned, aired and prepared it for wear when it came home, and, in short, enjoyed his fullest trust and confidence. I shall show you that on many occasions he gave halfpence, and on some occasions even sixpences, to her little boy. I shall prove to you that on one occasion, when he returned from the country, he distinctly and in terms offered her marriage; previously, however, taking special care that There should be no witness to their solemn contract. And I am in a situation to prove to you, on the testimony of three of his own friends - most unwilling witnesses, gentlemen most unwilling witnesses that on that morning he was discovered by them holding the plaintiff in his arms, and soothing her agitation by his caresses and endearments.

And now, gentlemen, but one word more. Two letters have passed between these parties — letters that must be viewed with a cautious and suspicious eye- letters that were evidently intended, at the time, by Pickwick, to mislead and delude any third parties into whose hands they might fall. Let me read the first:-"Garraway's, twelve o'clock. Dear Mrs. B.: Chops and tomato sauce. Yours, Pickwick." Gentlemen, what does this mean? Chops and tomato sauce! Yours, Pickwick! Chops! - gracious heavens! — and tomato sauce! Gentlemen, is the happiness of a sensitive and confiding fem le to be trifled away by such shallow artifices as these? The next has no date whatever, which is in itself suspicicus. "Dear Mrs. B.: I shall not be

at home till to-morrow. Slow coach." And then follows this very remarkable expression: -"Don't trouble yourself about the warming-pan." The warming-pan! Why, gentlemen, who does trouble himself about a warming-pan? Why is Mrs. Bardell so earnestly entreated not to agitate herself about this warming-pan, unless (as is no doubt the case) it is a mere cover for hidden fire-a mere substitute for some endearing word or promise, agreeably to a preconcerted system of correspondence, artfully contrived by Pickwick with a view to his contemplated desertion? And what does this allusion to the slow coach mean? For aught I know it may be a reference to Pickwick himself, who has most unquestionably been a criminally slow coach during the whole of this transaction, but whose speed will now be very unexpectedly accelerated, and whose wheels, gentlemen, as he will find to his cost, will very soon be greased by you.

But enough of this, gentlemen. It is difficult to smile with an aching heart. My client's hopes and prospects are ruined; and it is no figure of speech to say that her “occupation is gone" indeed. The bill is down; but there is no tenant. Eligible single gentlemen pass and repass; but there is no invitation for them to inquire within or without. All is gloom and silence in the house; even the voice of the child is hushed; his infant sports are disregarded when his mother weeps. But Pickwick, gentlemen — Pickwick, the ruthless destroyer of this domestic oasis in the desert of Goswell street- Pickwick, who has choked up the well, and thrown ashes on the sward - Pickwick, who comes before you to-day with his heartless tomato sauce and warming-pans-Pickwick still rears his head with unblushing effrontery, and gazes without a sigh on the ruin he has made! Damages, gentlemen, heavy damages, is the only punishment with which you can visit him- the only recompense you can award to my client.

And for those