lates, silver spoons, knives,
forks, and dishes of fruit, but pads, pens, and ink in great quantity. It
was evident that Boswell's reportorial duties did not end with his labors
in the mundane sphere.

The dinner was set down to begin at seven o'clock, so that the guests, as
was proper, sauntered slowly in between that hour and eight. The menu
was particularly choice, the shades of countless canvas-back ducks,
terrapin, and sheep having been called into requisition, and cooked by no
less a person than Brillat-Savarin, in the hottest oven he could find in
the famous cooking establishment superintended by the government.
Washington was on hand early, sampling the olives and the celery and the
wines, and giving to Charon final instructions as to the manner in which
he wished things served.

The first guest to arrive was Confucius, and after him came Diogenes, the
latter in great excitement over having discovered a comparatively honest
man, whose name, however, he had not been able to ascertain, though he
was under the impression that it was something like Burpin, or Turpin, he
said.

At eight the brilliant company was arranged comfortably about the board.
An orchestra of five, under the leadership of Mozart, discoursed sweet
music behind a screen, and the feast of reason and flow of soul began.

"This is a great day," said Doctor Johnson, assisting himself copiously
to the olives.

"Yes," said Columbus, who was also a guest--"yes, it is a great day, but
it isn't a marker to a little day in October I wot of."

"Still sore on that point?" queried Confucius, trying the edge of his
knife on the shade of a salted almond.

"Oh no," said Columbus, calmly. "I don't feel jealous of Washington. He
is the Father of his Country and I am not. I only discovered the orphan.
I knew the country before it had a father or a mother. There wasn't
anybody who was willing to be even a sister to it when I knew it. But G.
W. here took it in hand, groomed it down, spanked it when it needed it,
and started it off on the career which has made it worth while for me to
let my name be known in connection with it. Why should I be jealous of
him?"

"I am sure I don't know why anybody anywhere should be jealous of anybody
else anyhow," said Diogenes. "I never was and I never expect to be.
Jealousy is a quality that is utterly foreign to the nature of an honest
man. Take my own case, for instance. When I was what they call alive,
how di