omer kept them company from sympathy. The
coachman, and footman, and groom, all blubbered and stared; and one
brought water, and one a basin, and the booby of a footman something
else, which I must not name; but in his hurry he had snatched up the
first utensil that he thought might be of use; I approved of his zeal,
but nodded to him to retire. Unluckily for him, the housemaid perceived
the mistake which his absence of thought had led him into; and,
snatching the mysterious vessel with her left hand, she hid it under her
apron, while with her right hand, she gave the poor fellow such a slap
on the cheek as to bring to my mind the tail of the whale descending on
the boat at Bermuda.

"You great fool!" said she, "nobody wants that."

"There is matrimony in that slap!" said I and the event proved I was
right--they were _asked_ in church the Sunday following.

The industrious application of salts, cold water, and burnt rags,
together with chafing of temples, opening of collars, and loosening the
stay-laces of the young ladies, produced the happiest effects. Every
hand, and every tongue, was in motion; and with all these remedies the
eyes of the enchanting Emily opened, and beamed upon me, spreading joy
and gladness over the face of creation, like the sun rising out of the
bosom of the Atlantic, to cheer the inhabitants of the Antilles after a
frightful hurricane. In half an hour, all was right "the guns were
secured--we beat the retreat;" the servants retired. I became the
centre of the picture. Emily held my right, my father my left; dear
Clara hung round my neck. Questions were put and answered as fast as
sobs and tears would permit of their being heard. The interlude was
filled up with the sweetest kisses from the rosiest of lips and I was in
this half hour rewarded for all I had suffered since I had sailed from
England in that diabolical brig for Barbadoes.

It was, I own, exceedingly wrong to have taken the house, as it were, by
storm, when I knew they were in mourning for me but I forgot that other
people did not require the same stimulus as myself. I begged pardon;
was kissed again and again, and forgiven. Oh, it was worth while to
offend to be forgiven by such lips, and eyes, and dimples. But I am
afraid this thought is borrowed from some prose or poetry; if so, the
reader must forgive me, and so must the author, who may have it again
now I have done with it, for I shall never use it any more.

My n