many a select circle. Not even your vagaries seem to
have power to offend the worshippers to whom your word has long been
a law, whether you spoke of golf, of salmon, of folk-lore or of books.
The censure of a BLUDYER (I wonder what has brought that formidable
name to my mind) can do little to discourage you. But Mr. BARRY PAIN
is a young writer. And yet some one remarked that _In a Canadian
Canoe_ was better even than _Essays in Little_, and the audacious
words were actually printed in a journal to which ANDREW LANG is
an occasional contributor. I myself have never dared to go so far.
There is something sacred about an established reputation. And I can
honestly say that I like the elegant airy trifles which your little
Muse has bestowed upon us, though I confess to a weariness when the
talk is too much of golf-clubs and salmon rods. And I admire your
appreciation of the original work of other men. In the present case
you and I disagree upon a question of taste. That is all. _Tant pis
pour moi_, I hasten to add. But I disagree in good company, for I note
with some amusement, that the PAYN whom you rightly praise, has a kind
and encouraging word for the PAIN whom you so vehemently disparage.
And in this case I will stake my all upon the eulogy of JAMES PAYN as
against the censure of ANDREW LANG. As you did me the honour to refer
to something I had written, I thought myself bound in politeness to
reply, and am

Your obedient servant,

AN A.R. IN THE B. DE B.-W.'s OFFICE."

* * * * *

A STRAIGHT TIP TO CANADIAN "CROSS COVES."

'Tis nice "in a Canadian Canoe"
To practise what the ribald call "canoodling;"
But what the deuce does the Dominion do,
"In _this_ galley," with this new game of "boodling?"
"Paddle your own Canoe," dear, if you will,
But kick all "cross coves" out, and trust to honest skill.

* * * * *

JOURNAL OF A ROLLING STONE.

TENTH ENTRY.

DICK FIBBINS, my more or less "learned" instructor in practical law,
goes out to a good many evening parties, I find. Casually remarks that
he "danced three square dances, the other night, with old DAVIS's ugly
daughter, the Solor (legal slang for Solicitor), in Caraway Street."
It's DAVIS himself, not the daughter, that is the Solicitor, and, it
seems she introduced the gay FIBBINS to her Papa. Hence another brief,
a rather complicated one, on some dispute about a mortgage.

[Illus