"What is the bag?" asked Wilmott. Forty-five brace of pheasants, nine of hares, one cock, seven couple of rabbits, and three brace of partridges, if I count right," replied Peter. CHAPTER VIII. A CURE FOR COURTING. "Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; THE old whipper-in had just risen from a refreshing night's rest, after a splendid day's run, and was making his toilet, with his usual care, before a small looking-glass suspended close to the open window of his dormitory, when a yellow leaf was blown from a neighbouring tree against his face. As it fell to the floor, Tom gravely shook his head, which action disarranged the exact squareness of the snowy cravat he was tying, and exclaimed, "Ah! that's the sermon for me. A leaf from Nature's book. This," continued he, 66 picking it up, appeals to a man's feelings. It tells him what he was, and what he must come to. Not that I agree with our curate, who said, last Sunday, all flesh was grass.' I don't believe that. I've no doubt some of it's formed from other vegetables. Why shouldn't it? However that may be," soliloquised Mr. Bolton, "doesn't such a thing, ah! even as this old withered leaf, go to prove my notion's right?" At this query, a long pause ensued; and the speaker, not getting a reply, from a most natural cause, there being no one within hearing to give one, he satisfactorily answered it himself; as most persons do who reply to their own questions. Certainly it does, as thus," said Tom, stretching out the digits of his left hand, and, with the fore-finger of his right, proceeding to prove his theory with the highest degree of certainty. "This is the world," added he, pointing to his little finger. Very good! Astronomers, geographers, or philosophers-which I don't know, and it doesn't signify 66 have said that it's so many miles round, and no more; that it never was, and never will be. These gentlemen," continued Mr. Bolton, pressing the end of his next finger, "have never been contradicted; and no one but a fool would do it. Now, as my old schoolmaster used to say, 'If you add, and don't subtract, what's the consequence?' at the same time taking an apple from one boy and giving it to another. Said he, the answer's obvious. Where there was one, there's none, and where there are two, there was but one.' Now, what I am coming at, is this," pinching the top of the adjoining finger; "if the bulk of the world, or the earth, as I should call it, increases, so must its circumference. its circumference doesn't, according to all accounts, and, therefore, its weight cannot. That's logic, and no mistake. Well, now comes the nut," squeezing the last finger very hard. "The carcases of men, women, children, horses, dogs, butterflies, insects of all sorts, grass, cabbages, leaves, every thing that lived, lives, or will live, has been, is, or shall But be added to the earth, must become part and parcel of the dust itself. For thousands of years this has been the rule, and may be for thousands of years to come. The consequence is," appealing to the thumb in remainder, "millions and myriads of millions of tons have been given to the earth, by bodies resigning their respective ghosts, both animal and vegetable, without making any difference in the measurement, and, therefore, without adding to the weight. The certainty, therefore, must be, that to the addition there's a corresponding subtraction, which keeps the affair balanced, and all in sailing trim. Then comes the question," observed Tom, with a Catonic solemnity, "how is this managed? This is a puzzler. But it appears to me, as active matter becomes passive, in due course of time, after being properly seasoned, passive matter becomes active. In no other way can it be accounted for. These are the only means to get rid of the difficulty. As to spirits, I don't like to disbelieve the parson, but my idea is, that the unoccupied are used for the |