"Oh, I suppose I may congratulate myself if I get a bare fifty dollars,-not a tithe of its value, you must admit.”

At this moment we were joined by a third person, who took the watch in his hand, and also inquired the price.

"She's a neat article," said he, "and must be well worth the money. I suppose she keeps good time? I have seen worse-looking watches bring a hundred. Now I think of it, my friend, if you will come along with me, I think I can get you a purchaser."

"Good-morning, sir!" said the gentleman in gray, moving off at a rapid pace with the new

comer.

"Stop a moment!" I interrupted. "What say you to thirty dollars ?"

The man in gray paused a moment, but not without manifesting considerable impatience.

"It is too little, too little-a perfect sacrifice. We may possibly meet in the course of the day; then I will accept of your offer, if I do not get my price in the mean time; at present I cannot be detained."

The fellow's apparent anxiety to be gone rendered me doubly anxious to purchase; believing,

VOL. I.-E

as I did, that such a bargain was rarely to be met with.

"Here," said I, "are forty dollars; if this sum will purchase your watch, the money is yours; but I will not give a farthing more."

"Forty dollars!" he soliloquized in an under tone; which, however, was sufficiently audible to my ear. "Forty dollars! Let me see. This is certainly not half its value; but I might be disappointed in this promised customer. A bird in the hand—we know the old adage. Besides, the money I must have; and that, if possible, before another hour." He then raised his voice and said, "I think, sir, I will accept your offer."

The bargain was struck, the money paid, and the watch mine. The man in gray, congratulating me upon my purchase, hastily turned the angle of a street and disappeared.

With the addition of a gold watch, what could I not accomplish? The old women would stare, and the young ones open their mouths. I proceeded to examine my treasure; but in attempting to open it (gods!) it broke into a dozen pieces, and fell to the ground. I gathered up the fragments, and found they had been fastened together with paste. As to the metal, it required not an alchy

mist to test its quality. And, in conclusion, it is only necessary to add, that the eagerness of the

man in gray to leave me was no longer a mystery.

CHAPTER VI.

So we'll live,

And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies.

Now, by two-headed Janus,

Nature hath framed strange fellows in her times;
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
And laugh, like parrots at a bagpiper;
And others of such vinegar aspect,

That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

SHAKSPEARE.

I WONDER I did not mention Mr. Brown in my diary. Mr. Brown was a fat, clever, jolly sort of man, who should not have been forgotten. His laughter was like an earthquake; it shook the very ground. He was a person who had laughed until he had grown fat.

Mr. Brown shared the misfortune of a dozen others who were overturned in a stage-coach. I was among the number. Mr. Brown, however,

was more unfortunate than all the rest; he was thrown, full length, into a ditch, and laughed until he sank and disappeared in the mire. I seized him by the hand, another by the foot, and with much puffing and blowing we pulled him upon dry land. Mr. Brown got up and laughed, shaking the mud in our faces. He retreated to a house on the roadside, where he said he would remain until he could send a message to his laundress. He was fully sensible of our kindness in extricating him from his dilemma. He gave me his address, and exacted a promise that I would call upon him when we both arrived at our journey's end.

In a week from this time I fulfilled my promise. I found that my fat, laughing friend resided in an elegant house in street: I was told that he had originally been a tallow-chandler, but was now a private gentleman, worth a hundred thousand dollars in bank stock. His house was decorated in the most costly manner; he possessed everything which wealth could obtain, or luxury desire.

I

rang the bell, and was shown by a servant into the parlour. I was announced, and soon ascertained that Mr. Brown was near at hand, by his laughing. He came into the room, and gave me a cordial shake of the hand. I was scarcely seated, when a lady entered, accompanied by two