--and than the loup like lightning, and your back-bane broken wi' a
thud, like a rotten rash--and then the creature begins to lick your face
wi' his tongue, and sniffle and snort over owre you, and now a snap at
your nose, and than a rive out o' your breast, and then a crunch at your
knee--and you're a' the time quite sensible, particularly sensible.

_Odoherty_.--Give him a dig in the muzzle, and he'll tip you the
_coup-de-grace_.

_North_.--What a vivid imagination the Shepherd has--well,
cowardice is an inspiring principle.

* * * * *

HEAD WAGER.

The following is a story from a MS., copied by Gaillard, in his Life of
Francis I.:--

Duprat said in one of the conversations with the emperor's minister,
that he would consent to lose his head if his sovereign had aided Robert
de la Mark against Charles. The Spanish chancellor claimed du Prat's
head as forfeited, for, he said he had in his possession letters which
proved Francis's connivance with Robert de la Mark. "My head is my own
yet," replied Du Prat, "for I have the originals of the letters you
allude to, and they in no manner justify the scorn you would put upon
them." "If I had won your head," replied the imperial chancellor, "you
might keep it still. I protest I would rather have a pig's head, for
that would be more eatable." _Monthly Mag._

* * * * *

The Novelist.

* * * * *

FAIR FANARIOTE.

In consequence of the numerous revolutions that have accompanied the
fall of the Greek empire in Byzantium, most of the inhabitants of
Fanari, near Constantinople, boast of being descendants of the dethroned
imperial families; a circumstance which is probable enough, and which
nobody takes the trouble to dispute, any more than the alleged nobility
of the Castilian peasantry, or the absurd genealogies of certain great
families.

In a retired street in Pera, (one of the suburbs of Constantinople,) a
descendant of the Cantacuzenes followed the humble calling of a butcher;
but, in spite of industry and activity, he had great difficulty in
earning a sufficiency to pay his way, and maintain his wife and his only
daughter, Sophia. The latter had just entered her fourteenth year, and
her growing beauty was the admiration of the whole neighbourhood.

Fate, or, if you please so to call it, Providence, ordained that the
poor butcher should suffer repeated losse