of his hotel, farm, and appurtenances, or procuring a purchaser for them at that figure, which was, as a matter of course, a ridiculously low one.  Two damsels who assisted Dr. Chase in ministering to the wants of his guests at dinner had a very appalling manner of presenting to the frightened feeder his choice of viands.  The solemn silence which usually pervades the dinner-table of an American hotel was nowhere more observable than in this Doctor’s establishment; whether it was from the fact that each guest suffered under a painful knowledge of the superhuman efforts which the Doctor was making for his or her benefit, I cannot say; but I never witnessed the proverbially frightened appearance of the American people at meals to such a degree as at the dinner-table of the Sauk Hotel.  When the damsels before alluded to commenced their peregrinations round the table, giving in terribly terse language the choice of meats, the solemnity of the proceeding could not have been exceeded.  “Pork or beef?” “Pork,” would answer the trembling feeder; “Beef or pork?” “Beef,” would again reply the guest, grasping eagerly at the first name which struck upon his ear.  But when the second course came round the damsels presented us with a choice of a very mysterious nature indeed.  I dimly heard two names being uttered into the ears of my fellow-eaters, and I just had time to notice the paralyzing effect which the communication appeared to have upon them, when presently over my own shoulder I heard the mystic sound-I regret to say that at first these sounds entirely failed to present to my mind any idea of food or sustenance of known description, I therefore begged for a repetition of the words; this time there was no mistake about it, “Steam-pudding or pumpkin-pie?” echoed the maiden, giving me the terrible alternative in her most cutting tones; “Both!” I ejaculated, with equal distinctness, but, I believe, audacity unparalleled since the times of Twist.  The female Bumble seemed to reel beneath the shock, and I noticed that after communicating her experience to her fellow waiting-woman, I was not thought of much account for the remainder of the meal.

Upon the day of my arrival at Sauk Rapids I had let it be known pretty widely that I was ready to become the purchaser of a saddle-horse, if any person had such an animal to dispose of.  In the three following days the amount of saddle-horses produced in the neighbourhood was perfectly astonishing; indeed the fact of placing a saddle upon the back of any thing possessing four legs seemed to constitute the required animal; even a German—­a “Dutchman’” came along with a miserable thing in horseflesh, sand-cracked and spavined, for which he only asked the trifling sum of $100.  Two livery stables in St. Cloud sent up their superannuated stagers, and Dr. Chase had something to recommend of a very superior description.  The end of it all was, that, declining to purchase any of the animals brought up for inspection, I found