aches to many others.

It is right that people should know that a certain degree of
circumspection ought to be used, with regard to moral character,
as well as other qualifications, in the selection of a nurse,
lest a person be employed who will work irreparable mischief
among the younger members of the family.

The Individual calls on a Nursing Sorceress.

Who shall say that broomstick locomotion is a lost art, and that
steam has superseded magic in the matter of travelling? Because
no one of us has ever encountered a witch on her basswood steed,
shall we presume to assert that witches no longer bestride
basswood steeds and make their nocturnal excursions to blasted
heaths, there to meet the devil in the social midnight orgie, and
kick up their withered heels in the gay diabolical dance with
other ancient females of like kidney with themselves? Because no
one of us has ever beheld with his own personal optics, an old
woman change herself into a black cat, shall we therefore assert
that the ancient dames of our own day are unable to accomplish
that feline transformation? "Not by no manner of means whatsomdever,"
as Mr. Weller would remark.

Let us not then be found without charity for the peculiar and
persistent faith of the hero of this book, who, though thrice
bitterly disappointed in his matrimonial speculations among the
witches, still clung to the fond belief that a bride with
supernatural powers of doing things would be a splendid
speculation, and that such a spouse could be found if he, her
ardent lover, did not give up the chase too soon. Spite of his
disappointment with Madame Bruce, and his crushing discomfiture
with Madame Widger, Hope still sprang eternal in the "Individual's"
breast, and he felt, like the immortal Mr. Brown of classic
verse, that it would "never do to give it up so."

He had something of a natural turn for mechanics, and having been
of late engaged in some entertaining speculations on steam
engines, he came not unnaturally to think of the wonderful
advantage the magically-endowed people of old had over the
present age in the matter of locomotion. He thought of that
wonderful carpet on which a jolly little party had but to seat
themselves and wish to be transported to any far-off spot, and
presto! change! there they were instanter. No collisions to be
feared; no running off the track at a speed of ever-so-many
unaccountable miles an hour; no cast-iron-voiced conductor at
short