mfortably asleep on feather beds, those
formidable bones which you see in our museum were flying in the air;
the cup which I now hold in my hand was a portion of the clay on which
you sit; the canoe with which you ran away the other day was a live
seal; the hats that we wear, were running about the fields in the form
of angola rabbits. So with everything you see about you; for fifteen
years, excepting the Sabbath, which is our day of rest and recreation
as well as prayer, we have never relapsed from labor, and you are at
liberty to adopt a similar course, if you feel so disposed."

"No want of variety," said Jack; "if you do not like the saw-pit, you
can have the tannery."

"Neither are very much in my line," replied Willis.

"What then do you say to pottery?"

"I have broken a good deal in my day."

"Yes, but there is a difference between breaking it and making it."

"What appears most needful," remarked Fritz, "is, three or four acres
of fresh land, to double our agricultural produce."

"Is land dear in these parts?" inquired Mrs. Wolston, smiling.

"It is not to be had for nothing, madam; there is the trouble of
selecting it."

"And the labor of rendering it productive," added Ernest.

"But how do you manage for a lawyer to convey it?"

"I was advising Ernest to adopt that profession," said Mrs. Becker;
"wills and contracts would be in harmony with his studious
temperament."

"At present, the question before us," said Becker, "is the allotment
of quarters; in the meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Wolston, with the young
ladies, will continue to occupy our room."

"No, no," said Wolston "that would be downright expropriation."

"In that case the matter comes within the sphere of our lawyer, and I
therefore request his advice."

To this Ernest replied, by slowly examining his pockets; after this
operation was deliberately performed, he said, in a _nisi prius_ tone,
"That he had forgotten his spectacles, and consequently that it was
impossible for him to look into the case in the way its importance
demanded, otherwise he was quite of the same opinion as his learned
brother--his father, he meant."

"And what if we refuse?" said Mrs. Wolston.

"If you refuse, Mrs. Wolston, there is only one other course to
adopt."

"And what is that, Master Frank?"

"Why, simply this," and rising, he cried out lustily, "John, call Mrs.
Wolston's carriage."

"Ah, to such an argument as that, there can be no reply; so I see y