e, abuse all
that is animate in Leaplow, the present company, with their relatives
and quadrupeds, excepted; but do not raise your blaspheming tongue
against anything that is inanimate! Respect, I entreat of you, the
houses, the trees, the rivers, the mountains, and, above all, in
Bivouac, respect the Wide-path! We are a people of lively sensibilities,
and are tender of the reputations of even our stocks and stones. Even
the Leaplow philosophers are all of a mind on this subject."

"King!"

"Can you account for this very extraordinary peculiarity, brigadier?"

"Surely you cannot be ignorant that all which is property is sacred!
We have a great respect for property, sir, and do not like to hear our
wares underrated. But lay it on the mass so much the harder, and you
will only be thought to be in possession of a superior and a refined
intelligence."

Here we turned again to Mr. Wriggle, who was dying to be noticed once
more.

"Ah! gentlemen, last from Leaphigh!"--he had been questioning one of our
attendants--"how comes on that great and consistent people?"

"As usual, sir;--great and consistent."

"I think, however, we are quite their equals, eh?--chips of the same
blocks?"

"No, sir--blocks of the same chips."

Mr. Wriggle laughed, and appeared pleased with the compliment; and I
wished I had even laid it on a little thicker.

"Well, Mogul, what are our great forefathers about? Still pulling to
pieces that sublime fabric of a constitution, which has so long been the
wonder of the world, and my especial admiration?"

"They are talking of changes, sir, although I believe they have effected
no great matter. The primate of all Leaphigh, I had occasion to remark,
still has seven joints to his tail."

"Ah! they are a wonderful people, sir!" said Wriggle, looking ruefully
at his own bob, which, as I afterwards understood, was a mere natural
abortion. "I detest change, sir; were I a Leaphigher, I would die in my
tail!"

"One for whom nature has done so much in this way, is to be excused a
little enthusiasm."

"A most miraculous people, sir--the wonder of the world--and their
institutions are the greatest prodigy of the times!"

"That is well remarked, Wriggle," put in the brigadier; "for they have
been tinkering them, and altering them, any time these five hundred and
fifty years, and still they remain precisely the same!"

"Very true, brigadier, very true--the marvel of our times! But,
gentlemen, what do y