Year: 1859

~" "hu guui iuiuiiy hii my me- Nnu Delip


mothert to your motherlcss children, and putin


every penny of my fortune into your till


"IIold, hold" cried Mr.. Brown; draw itmid


or will--n


eyes, yes, you will; know you will Wha


will you?"


Emigrate My mind is made up will


stand this no longer You have driven me ou


ofhousc and home you have banished me from


my country; it is all over !" and Mr.. Brown pu


up his hands desperately, and settled his ha


upon his head, as if he would have gone to New


South Wales that moment


"And all about leg of muttonr' said Miss


Brown, cooling gradually down. swell, if


was man But it's no use talking: my life


has been sacrifice from the beginning I have


been slave to you and your family all my


days | have been a mother to your motherless


children; have put every penny of my for
tune into your till-and now it is to be leg
of mutton after all Y


"With caper-sauce, Mollylr added Mr..
Brown.


This stroke of policy had prodigous effect.
If Miss Molly Brown had u weakness in this
world, it was a weakness for caper-sauce; and
the very mention of the condiment inveigled
to her lips the moisture which had begun to
rise into her eyes. Still, il was only by degrees
she allowed herself to be subdued. She had q
passion for self-sncrifice, and offered herself up
to the leg of mutton, willingly, it is true, but
with full sense of the immensely of the obla-
ton. As the day wore on, however, her feel
ings insensibly changed. As the pot went on
boiling steadily-thanks to her carc-shc inn
bibed sort of maternal affection for its con-
which she at length pronounced to be by far
the most beautiful leg she had ever seen in her
life. She, in fact, considered it perfect Gu
riosity, and denied emphatically that there
could be such another in all creation. 1t was
now well on to one o'clock. The snowy-table
cloth was laid in the dining-room. Mr.. Brown
fdgetted out and in, waiting for the moment to
draw the beer but the moment advanced as
slowly as if it had n whole tun on its shoul-
ders, and the landlord more than once looked
sternly at the clock suspecting it had some
hand in IL. As for Miss Brown, she was in the
Kitchen watching the lid of saucepan heaving
gently, and opening its lips every now and
then to let out a fragrant sigh and a musical
murmur The caper-sauce was all ready to be
poured over the rich and smoking leg the very
instant it was dished II waited on the dresser
in a willow pattern hoat-just as our boat ar
rived at the pier below the house.


Now, you can know little of the era am
treating Of, if you are not aware of the impor-
tance we had all attached to the duty of provi-
ding stores forthe voyage. Even still, admit, |
we can eat, but at that time we devoured. AT
present we are hungry once, or it may be, twice
n day; but at that time all young fellows,
without exception, had a perpetual appetite,
which was ready on every possible and mpos-
sible occasion. In pull up the Thames more
especially, it was in constant requisition and
never heard of any one who was mad enough |
to trust to chance in such an expedition For
our part we had three different meetings before
we could determine on what should be the
principal feature of the basket and it was not |
without considerable opposition from the mi
nority that at length leg of boiled pork car
red the day. But this Was a leg of pork II |
hit curiously the precise medium between salt |
md fresh being just picked enough to tell |
you by relish on the tongue that it was
neither one nor other, and make you exclaim
With the elegant and sensitive poet


4 M .,o ;s ~, y No o.,s,;,;4a ,t:iI


Well, we arrived, as I was saying, below the
1oat house-not to dine, however, but merely |
% refresh ourselves with draught of beer on |
,ur way, Mooring our gig to the pier, we pro-
,eeded to the house, hurthened of course with |
he all-mportant basket. We were not so |
green as to leave that behind us, even for the |
ew minutes we meant to be absent. There
we're too many young lawyers, like ourselves,
If the appetite of such gentry both for fun and |
,ickled pork We entered the boat house at |
he critical minute, just when Miss Brown was
linking to herself as she peeped into the
auce-pan, that the time was come and it was
With some ill-humor, shared in by the impa-
lent landlord himself, that she found herself
,alled upon to carry in the tankard to the new
customers.


Our basket was at the time in the custody of
Tom Pope, sometimes called flor we had all
Ilidsses) Long Tom, and sometimes Peeping
rom, on account of his unreasonable length,
md strange habit he had of prying and tip
0eing wherever he went. 1t was surprising
low quietly fellow of his inches was able to
et about his investigations; but he really
eemed to move from corner to corner like
hadow, and as he was preceded by a nose of
Uncommon sharpness and lengthiness, he
Usually smelt out more mischief for us than all
he rest of the party together. As Miss Brown
.ame into the room with the tankard, Tom saw,
1t once, by her portentous physiognomy, that
he had left some interesting work behind, and
We missed him from the room minute or two;
luring which need hardly say, although quite
gnorant of his whereabout or whatabout, We
icpt the spinster under cross examination as
o distances of divers places. When at length
he turned to leave the room, Tom was stand
ng lstessly, leaning his elbow upon the wall, |
md spelling document over the door, indica-
If some rght-worshipful lodge, to the meet
ngs of which that room was to he supposed |
,onsecrated and set apart forever. As she van |
shed, Tom winked at us in way which told |
,lainly that we had better be off as quickly as
night be consistent with perfect calmncss and |