y hovering round him. If he has
taken me up in the few minutes before dinner, he 'll not regret the bit
of meditation which does not involve him in a story. If he be spelling
me out in a mail-train, he'll be grateful for the "skipping" place,
which leaves him time to look out and see the ingenious preparations
that are making by the "down" or the "up" train to run into and smash
the unhappy convoy of which he forms a part.

"Come, my young lad, out with it. Let us hear a bit about the worthy
people who took the sin of launching you into the wide ocean. You must
have had owners one time or other." This was said by a hearty looking
old man, with hair white as snow, and an enormous pair of eyebrows to
match.

"Willingly, sir," said I, with an air of the easiest confidence; "I
should be but too proud if anything in a history humble as mine is could
amuse this honorable company. But the truth is, a life so devoid of
interest would be only a tax upon its patience to listen to; and as to
my birth, I can give little, indeed no, information. The earliest record
of my existence that I possess is from the age of two days and three
hours."

"That will do,--do admirably!" chorused the party, who laughed heartily
at the gravity with which I spoke, and which to them seemed an earnest
of my extreme simplicity. "We shall be quite satisfied with that," cried
they again.

"Well, then, gentlemen, thanking you for the indulgence with which you
consent to overlook my want of accuracy, I proceed. At the tender age I
have mentioned, I was won in a raffle!"

"Won in a raffle! won in a raffle!" screamed one after the other; and
amid shouts of laughter the phrase continued to be echoed from end to
end of the table. "That beats you hollow, Giles!" "By Jove, how scarce
babies must be in the part you come from, if people take tickets for
em!" Such were some of the commentaries that broke out amidst the mirth.

[Illustration: 280]

"I move," said a dapper little Frenchman who had been a barber and a
National Guard once, "I move that the honorable deputy make a statement
to the Chamber respecting the interesting fact to which he has alluded."

The motion was carried by acclamation, and I was accordingly induced to
ascend the tribune,--a kind of rude pulpit that was brought specially
into the room, and stationed at the side of the president's chair; the
comments on my personal appearance, age, air, and probable rank, which
were made all the w