s, honest Sue;
Verdict--Ennui--so little work to do.

CDLXXVIII.--"I'VE DONE THE SAME THING OFTEN."

A MR. JOHN SMITH, who is described, evidently not without reason, as a
"fast" talker, gave the following description of the blowing up of a
steamboat on the Mississippi: "I had landed at Helena for a minute to
drop some letters into the post-office, when all of a sudden I heard a
tremendous explosion, and, looking up, saw that the sky was for a minute
darkened with arms, legs, and other small bits and scraps of my
fellow-travellers. Amongst an uncommonly ugly medley, I spied the second
clerk, about one hundred and fifty feet above my own level. I recognized
him at once, for ten minutes before I had been sucking a sherry-cobbler
with him out of the same rummer. Well, I watched him. He came down
through the roof of a shoemaker's shop, and landed on the floor close by
the shoemaker, who was at work. The clerk, being in a hurry, jumped up
to go to the assistance of the other sufferers, when the 'man of wax'
demanded five hundred dollars for the damage done to his roof. 'Too
high,' replied the clerk; 'never paid more than two hundred and fifty
dollars in my life, _and I've done the same thing often_.'"

CDLXXIX.--CONFIDENCE.

"WHY," said a country clergyman to one of his flock, "do you always
sleep in your pew when I am in the pulpit, while you are all attention
to every stranger I invite?"--"Because, sir," was the reply, "when _you_
preach I'm sure all's right, but I can't trust _a stranger_ without
keeping a good look-out."

CDLXXX.--THE CUT INFERNAL.

SAID Wetherall the other night
Of ----: "He's the silliest elf
I ever _knew_." Sir Charles was right,
For no one ever _knows himself_.

CDLXXXI.--FEELING HIS WAY.

"UNCLE," said a young man (who thought that his guardian supplied him
rather sparingly with pocket-money), "is the Queen's head _still_ on
the sovereign?"--"Of course it is, you stupid lad! Why do you ask
that?"--"Because it is now such a length of time since _I saw one_."

CDLXXXII.--THE WILL.

JERRY dying intestate, his relatives claimed,
Whilst his widow most vilely his mem'ry defam'd:
"What!" cries she, "must I suffer because the old knave
Without leaving a will, is laid snug in the grave?"
"That's no wonder," says one, "for 'tis very well known,
Since he married, poor man, he'd _no will of his own_."