A Guipuzcoan

Guizonbat ardogabe
Dago erdi illa,
Marmar dabiltza tripac
Ardoaren billa;
Banan eran ezquero
Arxenera guchi,
Guizonic chatarrenac
Balio ditu bi.

Drinking Song.

;

When we give up the bottle,
We straight grow lank and lean
A wholesome wine-washed throttle
Is health's best stay I ween.
But while we quaff good liquor,
We're healthy, strong, and sound;
It makes the squire and vicar
Grow fat, and sleek, and round.

PERHAPS Mr. Julius Gullingsworth had never eaten his breakfast with less real enjoyment than on the day that ushered him into his five-and-twentieth year. It was not, strictly speaking, that he ate and drank less-that he subjected to the process of deglutition a smaller quantity of digestibles, fluid and solid, on that particular anniversary of his birth, than it was "his custom always" of a morning to do. Neither was it that the digestibles in question were less digestible, less stomachable, or less palatable than usual. It was something else: it was that Mr. Julius Gullings worth's mind was not in what he was doing, that he ate and drank mechanically, that his thoughts dwelt on something totally foreign to coffee, alien to eggs, irrelevant to hot rolls, in short, unconnected with any one constituent of the unimpeachable spread that threw diversified beauty over the damask before him.

Now, had the worst consequence of this pre-occupied state of mind been, that it caused Mr. Julius Gullingsworth to imbibe his coffee without any defined consciousness of its exquisite aroma, and to send his finnan haddock the way of all fish, without pausing over the sense of its divine relish, we think this would have been evil quite sufficient for the day, considering it was his birth-day. But there was worse than this: in his abstraction he had raised his first cup to his lips in such a caloriferous state, that he was obliged to have recourse to cold cream before he could go on with his breakfast; and when, having got to the end of the meal, he walked over to the tall cheval glass, which stood in the most advantageous position for collecting a maximum of light upon the image formed in it, and proceeded to examine minutely into the extent of the damage done, it was but too evident that the effects of the burn would continue glaringly visible for the next twentyfour hours at least; and that the abused feature, during that period, must wear its comeliness with an abatement. Mr. Julius Gullingsworth

sighed; he had particular reasons for wishing that fate had, for this day at least, permitted him to look as much like himself as possible; however, he glanced down at his feet, as he might also have been observed-had the dumb waiter which stood at his elbow been gifted with a turn for observation-to do repeatedly during breakfast-and the cloud on his brow grew for a moment lighter.

After a few minutes' half pensive, half rapturous contemplation of the form and features that looked out on him from the cheval glass-to which we have to remark that he advanced his face as closely as if he had wished to ascertain whether his "double" used the same perfumes as he did himself—Mr. Julius Gullingsworth opened a rosewood cabinet, and, from a secret drawer of the same, took out a pair of spectacles, which, having first looked cautiously about him, he put on. He then proceeded to remove, one by one, to the breakfast-table, the various objects with which the dumb waiter was charged; after which he brought the latter article, with some trouble, into the middle of the room, and stationed it nearly opposite to, and at a short distance from, the cheval glass. This done, he drew back a couple of steps, and surveyed, with a grave and critical air, the arrangements he had made. They appeared to please him : he fixed his eyes on the dumb waiter, sighed, placed his hand on his breast, bowed, smiled, murmured something in which only the words "honour," and "dance," or, as Mr. Julius Gullingsworth pronounced it, "dence," were to be distinguished, smiled again, bowed again, sighed again, and began, with much solemnity, to whistle. It was clear that there was some important object in all these operations; for, though whistling, in the existing state of his mouth, must have been torture to Mr. Julius Gullingsworth, he bore it, and whistled on. At the commencement of the second part of the air, he presented his hand to the dumb waiter, and began slowly, and with infinite

sentiment, to dance round that piece of furniture, anxiously watching in the glass the effect of every step. From time to time a sigh, or a smile of ineffable tenderness, interrupted the melody. Gradually the measure increased in speed; Mr. Julius Gullingsworth's movements assumed a livelier character; more and more swiftly he circled round the passionless mahogany; his whistling became more energetic, his sighs more tempestuous, his tender looks more spasmodic, till at length, the music rising into a perfect paroxysm of expression, he spun round for fifteen seconds like a cockchafer on a pin, and ended by at once flinging down the breakfast equipage in one dire crash on the floor, and himself into an attitude which gave you the liveliest idea of Mercury under a sudden seizure of St. Vitus's dance. Poised on the extreme tip-toe of the right foot, the left elevated to a height perhaps never before seen in private life, Mr. J. G. pointed with the fore finger of his right hand to the ceiling of the apartment, as if to call the dumb-waiter's attention to the fact that he rented also the second floor, while with the right arm he encircled the gentle upholstery, on which his eyes were at the same time bent with a seraphic look.

Mr. Julius Gullingsworth, it will be seen, had a soul which, like Britannia herself, or Queen Victoria, or the lady of Commissioner Lin, could be

"Mistress of herself, though China fall!"

Neither the avalanche of porcelain behind him, swept from the breakfast table by the far-flying skirts of his dressing-gown, nor the unceremonious bounce with which his most intimate friend, Captain Dunham Browne, at this moment entered the room, interfered in the least with his equilibrium either of mind or body. Undiverted from the matter in hand, showing only by the hurried thrusting of the spectacles into his waistcoat pocket that he was aware of the presence of a third person, he called up a still more captivating smile than that with which he had asked the dumb-waiter to dance, and, bending over the brown convenience with an air of the softest languishment, he breathed the impassioned words"Heavenly Miss Hardwood! divine VOL. XXVII.-No. 160.

Arborea trensetlentic miracle of beauty! I adore you-for you I exist! Arbitress of my fate, it is yours to bid me live or die! You have accepted my hend for a pas de deux-oh, accept it for life!"

Captain Dunham Browne stood for some moments like a gentleman inclined, on the whole, to suspect his eyes and ears of being in a conspiracy to hoax him; then still holding the door in his hand, and motioning as if to retire, he said

"I'm afraid I intrude on a tête à tête."

“Oh, dear, no, Captain Durham Browne, not at ole!" said Mr. Julius Gullingsworth, reverting to the condition of a biped; "come in, pray— it's no intrusion whatever."

And he hastened to shake hands with the visitor.

"Did you think I did that well, Captain Dunham Browne?" asked Mr. J. G., after the usual salutations and civil inquiries had been exchanged"Should you say, now, I did it effectively?"

"I would, indeed, Gilliflower," answered the captain: "I would say you did it most effectively, and I think the crockery man down street would agree with me."

"Oh, not thet," said Mr. Julius; "not the china and things; that was merely an eccident. I forgot I had my dressing gown on, and

Well,

"Oh, then you mean, did you make a fool of yourself effectively. I think you did. If that was the object you had in view, Gull, I should say you effected it in a manner at once creditable to your abilities and suitable to the time of year. Compliments of the season, Gilly, and many happy returns."

It is time the reader should be informed that it was the first of April, as well as Mr. Julius Gullingsworth's birth-day. Another great fact, which, perhaps, this is the fittest opportunity we can take of stating, is that a lady, who had the infirmity of not being able to remember people's names when she didn't choose, had once addressed Mr. J. G., as "Mr. Gilliflower Gull," and that his friends had voted Gilliflower Gull a much prettier name than the other one, and applied it to him accordingly. It was a liberty that he did not exactly like;

2 K

"I am."

"So am I, and so is the divinethe adorable Arborea Hardwood! I never mentioned it to you, Captain Dunham Browne, but I have loved her long."

"Long! why it isn't six months since Miss Julia Foran-my own lovely townswoman--gave you your last willow."

"She give me the willow! I gave it to her, if you please."

"Ah! well, maybe you did, I dare say. Only, as well as I recollect the circumstances, you were engaged--the day fixed

"Yes, yes, that's ole true; but, I'm sorry to say I-in fect I jilted the lady. It was very wrong of me; but it would be still more so to deny it now. I assure you, Captain Dunham Browne, I take ole the blame of that business to myself."

"Very generous of you; but I was merely going to observe that the lady married another gent, and-you an't married yet."

"I haven't time to explain that to you now; but I beg you to believe, Captain Dunham Browne, that no lady has ever given, or had the opportunity of giving me the willow, although I am very sorry to say I have deserved it of the sex. But that's ole over. A new epoch in my life commenced from the hour I beheld Arborea Hardwood. I loved, sir, at first sight, and --for the first time."

"Oh, Gilly, Gilly! for the first time! 'Pon my honour that's too bad."

"For the first time, Captain Dunham Browne, seriously. I have fencied that I loved before, but the profound nature of the sentiment I now experience has opened my eyes to the superficial character of ole former ones. My pession for Arborea has stood the test of months."

"How many?"

"Four, very nearly."

"Why you're a miracle of con

stancy, Gull! And does the lady know nothing about it yet? Have you never told your love?"

"Never in words; but this evening I break silence, I tell her ole, and I think I may be mistaken, but I think -it will be no news to her."

"Very likely not: the women soon find out what a fellow thinks of them. Well, and your love is not hopeless, Gull? You're not going to make an offer of your heart without having some reason to think the vital will be accepted?"

"Why, Captain Dunham Browne, there are such things as eyes, and I fletter myself"

"That Arborea has a pair in her head. Well, there's something in that too. You're a deuced goodlooking fellow, Gull, that's only the truth."

"Oh, dear me, Captain Dunham Browne!" said Mr. Julius Gullings. worth, all blushes and dimples; " it isn't that at ole. Surely you don't think me so vain as to-what I mean is that as my eyes have, I kennot help thinking, betrayed my feelings to Arborea, so I fletter myself that I have been able to read in hers that those feelings are not unreciprocated. short, I think I have no reason to fear that my declaration will be ill received."

In

"We will give the lady credit for better taste, Gull, than to suppose any such thing possible. Don't blush man; sure you can't help being a handsome fellow. But now, to be candid with you, Gull, I'll be hanged if I can see what all this has to do with your making love to your mahogany Ganymede there, much less with your smashing the tea-things."

"No; I think you would not easily guess the connexion in ole that, Captain Dunham Browne, but it is ole very simple. I intend to propose to Arborea in the ettitude you so me in. You know I hev some notion of dencing. I think I may venture to say, Captain Dunham Browne, if there's any one thing that I do more particularly well than another it is dencing."

"Well, I think it is, Gull."

"Well, sir, I have composed a dence; you are aware I have some slight knowledge of music. I have composed a dence which I have al

ready engaged Arborea to dence with me this evening, just before supper. It's entirely my own, music, and figure, and ole. That's it on the piano. Well, we dence together, and, at a certain pessage, I execute a pirouette, which terminates by placing me in the same position, relatively to Arborea, in which I was, when you came in, with reference to the dumb waiter. With one arm I encircle the waist of my partner; the other is raised, the finger pointing towards heaven, as an allusion to the celestial origin of love; I heng suspended, like a feathered Mercury, on one toe; the other couples"

"Are represented by the crockery here. I see. In executing your pirouette you floor them."

"Oh, dear, no, Captain Dunham Browne; how could you think I would do such a thing? The other couples move slowly around us-they are only the frame of the picture, you know— and I murmur in the ear of my partner the words' Heavenly Miss Hardwood! divine Arborea! trensetlentic miracle of beauty! I adore you! for you I exist! Arbitress of my fate, it is yours to bid me live or die! You have accepted my hend for a pas de deux-Oh! accept it for life!' What

do you think of that, Captain Dunham Browne ? I consider it prettily worded."

"It's all that, Gilly; it's all that," said Captain D. B.

"The only thing I'm in doubt about," resumed Mr. Julius, "is whether 'destiny' wouldn't be better than 'fate.' Arbitress of my fate!' Arbitress of my destiny!' Now, tell me, kendidly, Captain Dunham Browne, which do you think I ote to say?"

"There are precedents for both," said the captain; "you can't go astray."

"I should like to say whichever would be most original," said Mr. J. G. "Stop a minute; you shall just see me go through the whole, and then you'll be better able to judge of the effect. One ken't prectise a thing of the kind too often: you ken't imegine the quantity of things I've broken this week already, trying to render myself perfect in it. Would you have any objection to represent Miss Hardwood, Captain Dunham Browne? -the dumb waiter's a leetle clumsy."

Captain Dunham Browne professed himself flattered to act as the remplaçant of a fair lady; Mr. Julius Gullingsworth drew back a step, ogled his military friend, sighed, smiled, applied his hand to his waistcoat, and, in short, acted towards Captain Dunham in all respects exactly as he had done, about half an hour before, towards the dumbwaiter. With the same superiority to physical anguish as before, he whistled the melody of the dance, interrupting himself only to dart an occasional glance of fire upon his partner, or to fetch up a sigh from the immediate vicinity of his stomach. They danced -the whirl came-the dressing-gown, this turn, swept the mantel-piece, as it had previously done the breakfast table, and a multiplicity of pretty things, some glass, some alabaster, bestrewed the hearth-rug with their fragments, as Mr. Julius Gullingsworth, arrested, as if by magic, in his Hermetic attitude, ceased to whistle, and gasped out, as he gazed upon the captain with a languishing expression, which the gallant gentleman returned with a bashful side-glance

"Heavenly Miss Hardwood! divine Arborea! I adore you! 'tis for you I exist! Arbitress of my-shall I say destiny, Captain Dunham Browne, or fate? Arbitress of-which shall it be?"

"It's a toss up between them," said Captain Dunham Browne; "why should'nt you say both?"

"That's it!" exclaimed Mr. Julius Gullingsworth, prodigiously excited. "That's the very thing! I wonder it did n't occur to me. Arbitress ofOh, dear! I'm getting a dreadful cremp in this foot. Arbitress of my fate! that is, my des-no, my-I don't see how I'm to bring them together."

"Say my fate's destiny," proposed the captain; "or my destiny's fate."

"I have it!-I have it! Arbitress

of my destined fate! What do you think of destined fate, Captain Dunham Browne? Or stay-destined arbitr―Oh, dear, gracious! what a terrible cremp I hev got!"

Mr. Julius Gullingsworth was obliged to sit down, and holding out the afflicted leg, he entreated his friend to pull it. Captain Dunham Browne complied with the request: Mr. Julius held his chair fast with both hands, and the captain tugged with so much zeal that he drew both the chair and the gentleman on it