slightest possible derangement of those members subordinate to his upper structure.  Of old the Sybarite complained.  Not so our self-helpful islanders.  Since they could not, now that work was done and jollity the game, take off their legs, they got away from them as far as they might, in fashions original or imitative:  some by thrusting them out at full length; some by cramping them under their chairs:  while some, taking refuge in a mental effort, forgot them, a process to be recommended if it did not involve occasional pangs of consciousness to the legs of their neighbours.  We see in our cousins West of the great water, who are said to exaggerate our peculiarities, beings labouring under the same difficulty, and intent on its solution.  As to the second problem:  that of drinking without discomposure to the subservient limbs:  the company present worked out this republican principle ingeniously, but in a manner beneath the attention of the Muse.  Let Clio record that mugs and glasses, tobacco and pipes, were strewn upon the table.  But if the guests had arrived at that stage when to reach the arm, or arrange the person, for a sip of good stuff, causes moral debates, and presents to the mind impediments equal to what would be raised in active men by the prospect of a great excursion, it is not to be wondered at that the presence of a stranger produced no immediate commotion.  Two or three heads were half turned; such as faced him imperceptibly lifted their eyelids.

‘Good evening, sir,’ said one who sat as chairman, with a decisive nod.

‘Good night, ain’t it?’ a jolly-looking old fellow queried of the speaker, in an under-voice.

‘Gad, you don’t expect me to be wishing the gentleman good-bye, do you?’ retorted the former.

‘Ha! ha!  No, to be sure,’ answered the old boy; and the remark was variously uttered, that ‘Good night,’ by a caprice of our language, did sound like it.

‘Good evening’s “How d’ ye do?”—­“How are ye?” Good night’s “Be off, and be blowed to you,"’ observed an interpreter with a positive mind; and another, whose intelligence was not so clear, but whose perceptions had seized the point, exclaimed:  ’I never says it when I hails a chap; but, dash my buttons, if I mightn’t ‘a done, one day or another!  Queer!’

The chairman, warmed by his joke, added, with a sharp wink:  ’Ay; it would be queer, if you hailed “Good night” in the middle of the day!’ and this among a company soaked in ripe ale, could not fail to run the electric circle, and persuaded several to change their positions; in the rumble of which, Evan’s reply, if he had made any, was lost.  Few, however, were there who could think of him, and ponder on that glimpse of fun, at the same time; and he would have been passed over, had not the chairman said:  ‘Take a seat, sir; make yourself comfortable.’

‘Before I have that pleasure,’ replied Evan, ‘I—­’

’I see where ‘tis,’ burst out the old boy who had previously superinduced a diversion:  ‘he’s going to ax if he can’t have a bed!’