ing is warm work. I'm thinking thou had'st better put it
off till the cool o' the morning." The men, of course, became cooler
before they had done listening to this playful remonstrance.

Once, when he was travelling in the stage, they passed a number of
Irishmen with cart-loads of stones, to mend the road. Friend Hopper
suggested to the driver that he had better ask them to remove a very
large stone, which lay directly in the way and seemed dangerous. "It
will be of no use if I do," replied the driver. "They'll only curse me,
and tell me to go round the old road, over the hill; for the fact is,
this road is not fairly opened to the public yet." Friend Hopper jumped
out, and asked if they would turn that big stone aside. "And sure ye've
no business here at all," they replied. "Ye may jist go round by the
ould road." "Och!" said Friend Hopper, "and is this the way I'm trated
by my coontryman? I'm from Ireland meself; and sure I did'nt expect to
be trated so by my coontrymen in a strange coontry."

"And are ye from ould Ireland?" inquired they.

"Indade I am," he replied.

"And what part may ye be from?" said they.

"From Mount Mellick, Queen's County," rejoined he; and he began to talk
familiarly about the priest and the doctor there, till he got the
laborers into a real good humor, and they removed the stone with the
utmost alacrity. The passengers in the stage listened to this
conversation, and supposed that he was in reality an Irish Quaker. When
he returned to them and explained the joke, they had a hearty laugh over
his powers of mimicry.

His tricks with children were innumerable. They would often be lying in
wait for him in the street; and if he passed without noticing them, they
would sometimes pull at the skirts of his coat, to obtain the customary
attention. Occasionally, he would observe a little troop staring at him,
attracted by the singularity of his costume. Then, he would stop, face
about, stretch out his leg, and say, "Come now, boys! Come, and take a
good look!" It was his delight to steal up behind them, and tickle their
necks, while he made a loud squealing noise. The children, supposing
some animal had set upon them, would jump as if they had been shot. And
how he would laugh! When he met a boy with dirty face or hands, he would
stop him, and inquire if he ever studied chemistry. The boy, with a
wondering stare, would answer, "No." "Well then, I will teach thee how
to perform a curious chemical