cellar was deep, it could sniff up the wine like an elephant's

trunk, if the bellows were missing, it could blow the fire, - if the lamp was too glaring, it could suffice for a shade, it would serve as a speaking-trumpet to a heraldi, it could sound a signal of battle in the field, it would do for a wedge in wood-cutting-a spade for digginga scythe for mowing-an anchor in sailing; till Pamphagus cries out, 'Lucky dog that I am! and I never knew before what a useful piece of furniture I carried about with me." My father paused and strove to whistle, but that effort of harmony failed him—and he added, smiling, "So much for my apple-trees, brother John. Leave them to their natural destination of filling tarts and dumplings."

Uncle Jack looked a little discomposed for a moment; but he then laughed with his usual heartiness, and saw that he had not yet got to my father's blind side. I confess that my revered parent rose in my estimation after that conference; and I began to see that a man may not be quite without common sense, though he is a scholar. Indeed, whether it was that Uncle Jack's visit acted as a gentle stimulant to his relaxed faculties, or that I, now grown older and wiser, began to see his character more clearly, I date from those summer holidays the commencement of that familiar and endearing intimacy which ever after existed between my father and myself. Often I deserted the more extensive rambles of Uncle Jack, or the greater allurements of a cricket-match in the village, or a day's fishing in Squire Rollick's preserves, for a quiet

stroll with my father by the old peach-wall; -sometimes silent, indeed, and already musing over the future, while he was busy with the past, but amply rewarded when, sus pending his lecture, he would pour forth hoards of varied learning, rendered amusing by his quaint comments, and that Socratic satire which only fell short of wit because it never passed into malice. At some moments, indeed, the vein ran into eloquence; and with some fine heroic sentiment in his old books, his stooping form rose erect, his eye flashed; and you saw that he had not been origi. nally formed and wholly meant for the obscure seclusion in which his harmless days now wore contentedly away.

CHAPTER IV.

"EGAD, sir, the country is going to the dogs! Our sentiments are not represented in parliament or out of it. The County Mercury has ratted, and be hanged to it! and now we have not one newspaper in the whole shire to express the sentiments of the respectable part of the community!"

This speech was made on the occasion of one of the rare dinners given by Mr. and Mrs. Caxton to the grandees of the neighborhood, and uttered by no less a person than Squire Rollick, of Rollick Hall, chairman of the quarter-sessions.

I confess that I (for I was permitted on that first occa

sion not only to dine with the guests, but to outstay the ladies, in virtue of my growing years, and my promise to abstain from the decanters)-I confess, I say, that I, poor innocent, was puzzled to conjecture what sudden interest in the county newspaper could cause Uncle Jack to prick up his ears like a war-horse at the sound of the drum and rush so incontinently across the interval between Squire Rollick and himself. But the mind of that deep and truly knowing man was not to be plumbed by a chit of my age. You could not fish for the shy salmon in that pool with a crooked pin and a bobbin, as you would for minnows; or, to indulge in a more worthy illustration, you could not say of him, as St. Gregory saith of the streams of Jordan, "A lamb could wade easily through that ford."

"Not a county newspaper to advocate the rights of-" here my uncle stopped, as if at a loss, and whispered, in my ear, "What are his politics?" "Don't know," answered I. Uncle Jack intuitively took down from his memory the phrase most readily at hand, and added, with a nasal intonation, "the rights of our distressed fellow-creatures!"

My father scratched his eyebrow with his fore-finger, as he was apt to do when doubtful; the rest of the company a silent set looked up.

"Fellow-creatures!" said Mr. Rollick. -"fellow-fid

dlesticks!"

Uncle Jack was clearly in the wrong box. He drew out of it cautiously- "I mean," said he, "our respect

able fellow-creatures;" and then suddenly it occurred to him that a "County Mercury" would naturally represent the agricultural interest, and that if Mr. Rollick said that the "County Mercury ought to be hanged," he was one of those politicians who had already begun to call the agricultural interest "a Vampire." Flushed with that fancied discovery, Uncle Jack rushed on, intending to bear along with the stream, thus fortunately directed, all the "rubbish "* subsequently shot into Covent Garden and Hall of Commerce.

'Yes, respectable fellow-creatures, men of capital and enterprise For what are these country squires compared to our wealthy merchants? What is this agricul tural interest, that professes to be the prop of the land?"

"Professes!" cried Squire Rollick "it is the prop of the land; and as for those manufacturing fellows who have bought up the Mercury”

"Bought up the Mercury, have they, the villains!" cried Uncle Jack, interrupting the Squire, and now bursting into full scent "Depend upon it, sir, it is a part of a diabolical system of buying up, which must be exposed manfully. Yes, as I was saying, what is that agricultural interest which they desire to ruin? which they declare to be so bloated-which they call a vampire !' they the true blood-suckers, the venomous millocrats! Fellowcreatures, sir! I may well call distressed fellow-creatures the members of that much-suffering class of which you

"We talked sad rubbish when we first began," says Mr. Cobden In one of his speeches.

yourself are an ornament. What can be more deserving of our best efforts for relief, than a country gentleman like yourself, we'll say of a nominal £5000 a-yearcompelled to keep up an establishment, pay for his foxhounds, support the whole population by contributions to the poor-rates, support the whole church by tithes; all justice, jails, and prosecutions by the county rates- all thoroughfares by the highway rates-ground down by mortgages, Jews, or jointures; having to provide for younger children; enormous expenses for cutting his woods, manuring his model farm, and fattening huge oxen till every pound of flesh costs him five pounds sterling in oil-cake; and then the law-suits necessary to protect his rights; plundered on all hands by poachers, sheep-stealers, dog-stealers, churchwardens, overseers, gardeners, game-keepers, and that necessary rascal, his steward. If ever there was a distressed fellow-creature in the world, it is a country gentleman with a great estate."

My father evidently thought this an exquisite piece of banter, for by the corner of his mouth I saw that he chuckled inly.

Squire Rollick, who had interrupted the speech by sundry approving exclamations, particularly at the mention of poor-rates, tithes, county-rates, mortgages, and poachers, here pushed the bottle to Uncle Jack, and said, civilly," There's a great deal of truth in what you say, Mr. Tibbets. The agricultural interest is going to ruin; and when it does, I would not give that for Old Eng