like Milton's personification of purity amid the abandoned crew of Comus.

Our preacher, in fine, was a stiff, self-conceited young man, who must be heard first and all the time in society; who must decide all questions, whether embraced within the scope of his very superficial knowledge or not; who, when he wished to lounge, must put his boots on the best bed in the house; and when he wished to sit, must have the most comfortable situation and chair, with perhaps his feet on the next; and at table must be seated next the lady, where he could exercise what he supposed to be a kind of ministerial privilege, of gluttonizing for half an hour upon every thing before him, and then delving into the sugar-bowl for the remainder of the hour, and not without returning the sugar-spoon into its place well slobbered. And now he would get up from the first table and light his long stem pipe and puff away, until he had curled the fumes of the tobacco into the nostrils and very throats of the other guests, while they were being served at the second. Though I could not kelp noticing all this, I said nothing: he was a preacher. On one occasion, however, when he had devoured his

meal and smoked his pipe, he went into an adjoining room to loll, and without wishing to give any offence or thinking that it would be any harm, I went to the cupboard where he usually and vulgarly deposited his pipe and took it out, filled it with tobacco, and began to smoke. He saw me, and rose right up and came toward me. I at once saw that I had committed an intrusion and owed him an apology, and before he had time to speak, I said, "Parson, I am taking the liberty of smoking your pipe." "Yes," said he, "I perceive you are, and I don't desire you to assume such freedom again." He was a preacher. I said nothing, but handed the pipe up. He seated himself, and taking out his knife gave the stem a complete scraping, especially that part which had been in my mouth. I then told him, for I could no longer hold my peace, that I had often and again smoked one and the same pipe with as good and as nice people as he was, and with people who had never slobbered on a sugar-spoon, and afterward placed it back into the bowl from which whole parties had to be served. Here I was willing to play quits, but the bigoted creature could not rest until he had used his utmost to

ruin me. I learned this, and concluded to follow him a little farther, for I knew that he was not one of those ministers of God around whom the shield of Heaven is thrown, and celestial honors cluster, and whose aim is the redemption of the world. I heard of him at another house in the neighborhood, and with more punctuality, perhaps, than if he had been going to preach, attended. I saw him roll in his meat and bread, and get up and go to the fireplace, and send back a cloud over the table. I watched him where he placed his pipe, and when he went off to loll, I picked my opportunity and stole it away. I now went to the kitchen, obtained a bit of bread, called up half a dozen dogs and rubbed the stem over them and under them, carrying them one at a time through the same process, until, thinking that I had as much dog on the pipe as was in the owner, I concluded to return it; but I had never thought the first time about old Toler, a dog that I was about to slight; so I called him up, and taking hold of his tail, I rubbed the stem well under and over him, which caused him to yell at such a rate that it brought one of the resident young ladies to the door, and I was thus caught in the

act. I replaced the pipe as soon as I could, and stood round until he woke up, whereupon he marched up to the cupboard, took out the pipe, and broke the spell of suspense in which I was so effectually bound by running the dog-flavored stem into his dainty mouth. Glory enough, thinks I, and went my way; and what made me nearly kill myself a laughing, was to think he had been silly enough to tell it and bring the notice of the whole settlement down upon his conduct, which I have since been informed had the effect of curing him so far as to make him act ever afterward as though he thought every person was made out of dust, and by the same God that made himself.

But the summer was past; the yellow leaves were fallen home-scenes had become monotonous; my heart panted for the forest and the chase. I replenished my shot-bag, shouldered my gun and began to wind my horn, which brought my faithful old dog Double-head barking by my side. He was a splendid body-guard, and when he met a foe worthy of his steel, often reminded me of the dog which Ælian carried before Alexander the Great, with which to prove to him the value of the race, and which, despising all inferior

combatants, waited until the lion was turned loose before him, and then rushing forward seized him by the throat, and encountered him until his tail had been cut off, and then till one leg had been severed, and another and another until the lion. swung him, the cruelly-treated dog, round and round without tail or limb, but which still held to the monster's throat until having bled to death he dropped off. He following, I called up my other dogs and betook myself to the woods. In this ramble, as old uncle Simpson Bennet would say after a game of sledge, "I had a merry through of it." Many a fine old buck bounded high at· the keen crack of my rifle and bounded no more, and Double-head stood exultingly over him. Many a swan did I shoot as they clumsily and unsuspectingly strolled on the shore, and as they commanded a thousand graceful attitudes, moving at pleasure and proudly rowing in state on the smiling river; and again called them down while their strong wings were cleaving the air.

During one of these wild-goose chases, I induced my old friend Dillard to go with me to the river one day when a great many wild geese. were flying over, in order to shoot them on the