GOOD HUMOUR. 109

So they paida hundredweight of gold to the peasant, who was
not scolded, but kissed.

Yes, it always pays, when the wife sees and always asserts that
her husband knows best, and that whatever he does is right.

You see, that is my story. Iheard it when I was a child ; and
now you have heard it too, and know that “ What the old man
does is always right.”

GOOD HUMOUR.

Y father left me the best inheritance, to wit—good humour.
And who was my father? Why, that has nothing to do
with the humour. He was lively and stout, round and
fat ; and his outer and inner man was in direct contradiction to
his.calling. And pray what was he by profession and calling in
civil society? Yes, if this were to be written down and printed
in the very beginning of a book, it is probable that many when
they read it would lay the book aside, and say, “It looks so
uncomfortable ; I don’t lixe anything of that sort.” And yet my
father was neither a horse slaughterer nor an executioner ; on
the contrary, his office placed him at the head of the most respect-
able gentry of the town; and he held his place by right, for it
was his right place. He had to go first before the bishop even, and
before the Princes of the Blood. He always went first—for he
was the driver of the hearse !

There, now it’s out! And I will confess that when people saw
my father sitting perched up on the omnibus of death, dressed
in his long, wide, black cloak, and with his black-bordered three-
cornered hat on his head—and then his face, exactly as the sun
is drawn, round and jocund—it was difficult for them to think of
the grave and of sorrow. The face said, “It doesn’t matter ; it
doesn’t matter: it will be better than one thinks.”

You see, I have inherited my good humour from him, and also
the habit of going often to the churchyard, which is a good thing
to do if it be done in the right spirit; and then I take in the
“ Intelligencer,” just as he used to do.

I am not quite young. I have neither wife, nor children, nor
a librar: ; but, as aforesaid, I take in the “ Intelligencer,” and
that’s my favourite newspaper, as it was also my father’s. It is
very useful, and contains everything that a man needs to know—
such as who preaches in the church in the new books. And then
what a lot of charity, and what a numoer af innocent, harmless