a mony feck'--but in less time than we have taken to
write it--we two were sitting cheek by jowl, and hand in hand,
by that essential fire--while we showed by our looks that we
both felt, now they were over, that three years were but as one
day! The cane coal-scuttle, instinct with spirit, beeted the
fire of its own accord, without word or beck of ours, as if
placed there by the hands of one of our wakeful Lares; in globe
of purest crystal the Glenlivet shone; unasked the bright brass
kettle began to whisper its sweet 'under song;' and a centenary
of the fairest oysters native to our isle turned towards us
their languishing eyes, unseen the Nereid that had on the
instant wafted them from the procreant cradle beds of
Prestonpans. Grace said, we drew in to supper, and hobnobbing,
from elegant long-shank, down each naturalist's gullet
graciously descended, with a gurgle, the mildest, the meekest,
the very Moses of Ales.

"Audubon, ere half an hour had elapsed, found an opportunity of
telling us that he had never seen us in a higher state of
preservation--and in a low voice whispered something about the
eagle renewing his youth. We acknowledged the kindness by a
remark on bold bright birds of passage that find the seasons
obedient to their will, and wing their way through worlds still
rejoicing in the perfect year. But too true friends were we not
to be sincere in all we seriously said; and while Audubon
confessed that he saw rather more plainly than when we parted
the crowfeet in the corners of our eyes, we did not deny that
we saw in him an image of the Falco Lencocephalus, for that,
looking on his 'carum caput,' it answered his own description
of that handsome and powerful bird, viz. 'the general color of
the plumage above is dull hair-brown, the lower parts being
deeply brown, broadly margined with greyish white.' But here he
corrected us: for 'surely, my dear friend,' quoth he, 'you must
admit I am a living specimen of the Adult Bird, and you
remember my description of him in my First Volume.' And thus
blending our gravities and our gayeties, we sat facing one
another, each with his last oyster on the prong of his trident,
which disappeared, like all mortal joys, between a smile and a
sigh.

"How similar--in much--our disposition