er a fortnight's courtship.

Master Simon could not help concluding by some observation about
"modest merit," and the power of gold over the sex. As a remembrance
of his passion, he pointed out a heart carved on the bark of one of
the trees; but which, in the process of time, had grown out into a
large excrescence; and he showed me a lock of her hair, which he wore
in a true-lover's knot, in a large gold brooch.

I have seldom met with an old bachelor that had not, at some time or
other, his nonsensical moment, when he would become tender and
sentimental, talk about the concerns of the heart, and have some
confession of a delicate nature to make. Almost every man has some
little trait of romance in his life, which he looks back to with
fondness, and about which he is apt to grow garrulous occasionally. He
recollects himself as he was at the time, young and gamesome; and
forgets that his hearers have no other idea of the hero of the tale,
but such as he may appear at the time of telling it; peradventure, a
withered, whimsical, spindle-shanked old gentleman. With married men,
it is true, this is not so frequently the case: their amorous romance
is apt to decline after marriage; why, I cannot for the life of me
imagine; but with a bachelor, though it may slumber, it never dies. It
is always liable to break out again in transient flashes, and never so
much as on a spring morning in the country; or on a winter evening
when seated in his solitary chamber stirring up the fire and talking
of matrimony.

The moment that Master Simon had gone through his confession, and, to
use the common phrase, "had made a clean breast of it," he became
quite himself again. He had settled the point which had been worrying
his mind, and doubtless considered himself established as a man of
sentiment in my opinion. Before we had finished our morning's stroll,
he was singing as blithe as a grasshopper, whistling to his dogs, and
telling droll stories: and I recollect that he was particularly
facetious that day at dinner on the subject of matrimony, and uttered
several excellent jokes, not to be found in Joe Miller, that made the
bride elect blush and look down; but set all the old gentlemen at the
table in a roar, and absolutely brought tears into the general's eyes.

ENGLISH GRAVITY.

"Merrie England!"

--_Ancient Phrase_.

There is nothing so rare as for a man to ride his hobby without
molestation. I find the Squire has not s