ealth.

There! now he suddenly starts up as if distracted. "_Yelp_, _yelp_!"
Ah! poor Fido! although your master seems evidently out of humor, he
would not have kicked your beautiful spotted coat had he seen you!
There, he caresses you--so fold back your long ears, and wag your tail
complacently, while we hear what this impatient youth has to say, as
he strides so rapidly hither and thither.

"Well, no doubt wealth is a very fine thing, if the world would let
one enjoy it peaceably; but to be thus forever dined, and teaed, and
courted, and flattered, and smiled at, and bowed at, and winked at,
when, if it were not for my fortune, I very much doubt whether one of
these, my exceeding good friends, would give me a dinner to save me
from starvation. Why I had rather be the veriest boor that holds a
plough, or a cobbler at his last, than to be, as Shakspeare says, 'the
thing I am.' I am heartily sick of it, and could almost turn my back
upon the world, and lead a hermit's life. To be always a mark for
managing mothers, with great grown-up daughters; aimed at, like a
target, by scores of black, grey, and blue eyes; to be forever forced
to waltz with this one, and sing with another--and, ere I know it,
find myself entrapped into a close _tete-a-tete_ with a third. I wish
I _was_ married; then one-half at least of my troubles would be
over--for I should shake off this swarm of female fortune-hunters!
_Married_! ah! I wish I was! But where can I find one who will love me
for myself alone, and not for the standing my wealth would give her?
_Married_! ah! how delightful to come home and find a dear little wife
waiting with open arms to welcome me, and the rosiest and sweetest of
lips coaxingly pressed to mine; all my cares forgotten, all my
vexations subdued by her soothing caresses and tender words. And then
how enchanting as she warbles like a linnet for my ear alone; how
enchanting to lean her bewitching little head on my shoulder, and
inhale the balmy fragrance of her breath. O! I wish I was married!"

And now, so enraptured does this reasonable youth seem with the
picture he has sketched, that not having any thing else, you see, to
hug, he throws his arms most lovingly around himself. There, now he
frowns again, and--hark what more he has to say.

"In fact, I am not sure I have a real friend in the world, for, gild a
fool or a monkey, and mark what a troop of flatterers fawn around and
follow admiringly at his heels! And