ten--that's to say, I've been awake the whole time. Now we'll see." And
he arose and walked into the next room, which was rather dimly lighted,
to look at the clock. He remained there a long time, shuffling about,
and emitting sundry whiffs and snorts, and then rejoined the company,
rubbing his eyes, and rumpling his hair all over his head, with an
expression of bewilderment on his countenance which set every one
present tittering.

"All right," he said. "Guess't's 'bout time to start home."

"Oh no, not yet," answered the hostess. "We are going to have some cider
and doughnuts."

The cider and doughnuts were brought in and handed round, the sleepy
beau receiving his last. He took a good Irish bite. A pause. Something
was the matter. He pulled, he gnawed, he wrestled, he grunted, he
struggled: it was no use; that doughnut was too much for him. Suddenly,
with a quick motion worthy of the late lamented Mr. Grimaldi, he whipped
the doughnut out of his mouth and into his pocket. He thought he was
unobserved, but a roar of rustic laughter from all sides of the room
soon undeceived him. We will draw a veil over the scene, etc., etc., as
the novels say. In a few seconds his two fair charges, in charity,
proposed to go home; and they went.

Now what was this all about? I will tell you. When the young imp left
the room, as before mentioned, he slipped into the back parlor, turned
down the lights, and carried the clock off into the kitchen, where with
some Indian ink and a brush he marked on its face half a dozen extra
hands. He then replaced the clock on the mantelpiece in the parlor, and
returning to the kitchen, procured two small balls of cotton batting,
which he soaked in some batter the cook was using for doughnuts, and
these he fried till they exactly resembled the genuine article the cook
had just made. He had previously let the ladies into the secret, so that
when the sleepy beau went into the back parlor to look at the clock, as
they took care he should, they perfectly knew the bewildered frame of
mind he was in while trying to find out the time. The sister, too, while
handing round the doughnuts, managed to reserve the cotton ones for the
same gentleman.

The next day our hostess received a polite note from the discomfited
escort, thanking her for the gift of the doughnut, which he said had
been of infinite value to him, as he had given it to a neighbor's dog
which kept him awake all night, and the dog had since