out the measles; forbade my neighbours’ children playing in my yard to avoid the whooping-cough; and, to prevent infection from the small-pox, I ordered all my male servants’ heads to be shaved, made the coachman and footman wear tow wigs, and had them both regularly smoked whenever they returned from the neighbouring town, before they were allowed to enter my presence.  Nor were these all my miseries; in fact, they were but a sort of running base to a thousand other strange and frightful fancies; the mere skeleton to a whole body-corporate of horrors.  I became dreamy, was haunted by what I had read, frequently finding a Hottentot, or a boa-constrictor, in my bed.  Sometimes I fancied myself buried in one of the pyramids of Egypt, breaking my shins against the bones of a sacred cow.  Then I thought myself a kangaroo, unable to move because somebody had cut off my tail.

In this miserable state I one evening rushed out of my house.  I know not how far, or how long, I had been from home, when, hearing a well-known voice, I suddenly stopped.  It seemed to belong to a face that I knew; yet how I should know it somewhat puzzled me, being then fully persuaded that I was a Chinese Josh.  My friend (as I afterwards learned he was) invited me to go to his club.  This, thought I, is one of my worshippers, and they have a right to carry me wherever they please; accordingly I suffered myself to be led.

I soon found myself in an American tavern, and in the midst of a dozen grave gentlemen who were emptying a large bowl of punch.  They each saluted me, some calling me by name, others saying they were happy to make my acquaintance; but what appeared quite unaccountable was my not only understanding their language, but knowing it to be English.  A kind of reaction now began to take place in my brain.  Perhaps, said I, I am not a Josh.  I was urged to pledge my friend in a glass of punch; I did so; my friend’s friend, and his friend, and all the rest, in succession, begged to have the same honor; I complied, again and again, till at last, the punch having fairly turned my head topsy-turvy, righted my understanding; and I found myself myself.

This happy change gave a pleasant fillip to my spirits.  I returned home, found no monster in my bed, and slept quietly till near noon the next day.  I arose with a slight headache and a great admiration of punch; resolving, if I did not catch the measles from my late adventure, to make a second visit to the club.  No symptoms appearing, I went again; and my reception was such as led to a third, and a fourth, and a fifth visit, when I became a regular member.  I believe my inducement to this was a certain unintelligible something in three or four of my new associates, which at once gratified and kept alive my curiosity, in their letting out just enough of themselves while I was with them to excite me when alone to speculate on what was kept back.  I wondered I had never met with such characters in books; and the kind of