ses, which were not fulfilled. So, not having anything agreeable
to write about, he didn't write at all, like a young scamp as he was,
and when the time came that he had something pleasant to communicate,
it was too late, as his father was no more, and his only brother (your
father) was gone nobody knew where. Well, to make a short story of it,
that chap, your uncle, was knocked about in the world, sometimes up
and sometimes down, but at last found himself pretty strong upon his
legs, and then made up his mind to come back to Old England, where he
found nobody to care for him, and went wandering hither and thither,
spending his time at watering-places, and so on, for several years."

"And pray, sir," inquired Jeremiah, as his respected guest paused,
"have you any idea what became of him?"

"Yes, I have," replied the little gentleman, smiling significantly at
his host and hostess. "One day he arrived in a smallish town, very
like this, and terribly low-spirited he was, for he'd been ill some
time before, and was fretting himself to think that he had been
toiling to scrape money together, and was without children or kindred
to leave it to. No very pleasant reflection that, my worthy Wags, let
me tell you! Well, he ordered dinner, for form's sake, at the inn, and
then went yawning about the room; and then he took his stand at the
window, and, looking across the road, he saw the name of Wag over a
shop-door, and then----You know all the rest! The fact is, I am a
Wag, and, Jeremiah Wag, you are my nephew, and you, my dear Mrs Wag,
are my niece, and so let us be merry Wags together."

Here we might lay down the pen, were it not for our dislike to strut
in borrowed plumes; and that inclineth us to inform the gentle reader
that no part of this simple story is of our invention, except the last
disclosure of the senior Wag's relationship to his namesake, which we
ventured to add, fearing that the _truth_ might appear _incredible_.
The other facts occurred precisely as we have stated. An elderly
gentleman, bearing a name more singular than Wag, returned home from
India with a handsome fortune somewhat more than half a century back,
and sought in vain for relatives; but one day, from the window of an
inn, at which he had arrived in his own dark-green travelling-chariot,
he espied the shop of a namesake, whose acquaintance he instantly
made. His expressed hope was to discover that they were connected by
some distant tie of consang