nor humor, and the evening flew faster than desired. On retiring, a
man servant conducted me to an apartment on the upper floor of the
mansion, and sleep soon came and soon went, for an innumerable number
of rats and mice were careering all over the bed! and I felt them
sniffing about my nose and mouth; I sprang bolt upright, striking
right and left like a madman. This sent them pattering all about the
room, and dreading that I might find myself minus a nose or an ear
before morning, I groped all around the room for a bell, but could
find none; proceeding into the corridor and standing on tip-toe,
bell-wires were soon found, and soon set a ringing; watching at the
top of the very long staircase, a light was at last seen ascending,
borne in the hand of a very fat man, who proved to be the butler; he
had nothing on but his shirt, and a huge pair of red plush, which
enveloped his nether bulk. Puffing with the exertion of ascending so
many stairs, he at last saw me, still more lightly clothed than
himself, and inquired what I wanted?

"Have you got a cat about the house?"

"No, sir, we have no cats, they destroy the young pheasants."

"A dog, then?"

"No dog, sir, on account of the deer."

"Then tell the housekeeper there are ten thousand rats and twenty
thousand mice in the room I occupy!"

As he descended the stair he was heard mumbling,
"cats!"--"dogs!"--"rats!"--"mice!" and chuckling ready to burst his
fat sides.

After long waiting, the reflection of light on his red plush smalls
(_greats_ would better describe them) flashed up like a streak of
lightning, and puffing harder than before, told me if I would follow
him down stairs, he had orders to show me to another room.

Gathering up the articles of my dress over my arm, we descended, and I
was shown into a room of almost regal splendor. The lofty bedstead had
a canopy, terminating in a gilded coronet, and the ample hangings were
of rich Venetian crimson velvet, trimmed and festooned "about, around
and underneath." The ascent to this unusually lofty bed was by a
flight of superb steps, covered with rich embossed velvet. Out of the
royal palaces I had never seen such a bed.

In consequence of having stood so long undressed on the marble floor
at the top of the stairs, shivering with cold, the magnificent bed, on
getting into it, was found comfortable beyond expression. It felt as
if it would never cease yielding under the pressure; it sunk down,
down, down--