urely I must be among the water-lilies! What a lullaby sound as of
rippling waters and of distant music in the evening air; of the eddying
and swirl of the mingling currents; of the chime of bells on the evening
breeze; of the zephyrs through fir-tops; of woodland whispers; of the
cadence of the cathedral organ; of the soft sweet melody of the maiden's
laugh; of her gentlest accents in her sweetest mood; of--but similitudes
fail me. In this delicious retreat, which may be compared to the Garden
of Eden before the tempter entered, are the choicest flowers of rhetoric.
I hear a voice as from the far-off past, and I wonder will that be the
voice which will utter the "last syllable of recorded time?"

Then methought the scene changed, and I heard the question--

"Do you move, Mr. Jones?"

O the prosaic Jones!--"don't you move?"

Yes, he does; he partly rises, ducks his head, and elevates the hinder
portion of his person, and his movement ceases. And the question is
repeated to Mr. Quick. "Do you move, Mr. Quick?"

Then I saw Mr. Bumpkin again, just as Mr. Quick ducked his head and
elevated his back.

And then some gentleman actually moved in real earnest upon these
interesting facts:--A farmer's bull--just the very case for Mr.
Bumpkin--had strayed from the road and gone into another man's yard, and
upset a tub of meal; was then driven into a shed and locked up. The
owner of the bull came up and demanded that the animal should be
released. "Not without paying two pounds," said the meal-owner. The
bull owner paid it under protest, and summoned the meal-owner to the
County Court for one pound seventeen shillings and sixpence, the
difference between the damage done (which was really about twopence) and
the money paid to redeem the bull. Judgment for the plaintiff. Motion
for new trial, or to enter verdict for the defendant, on the ground that
the meal man could charge what he liked.

One of the learned Judges asked:

"Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Smiles, that if a man has a bull, and that
bull goes into a yard and eats some meal out of a meal-tub, and the
damage amounts to twopence, and the owner of the bull says 'here's your
twopence,' that the owner of the meal can say, "No, I want a hundred
pounds, and shall take your bull damage feasant," and then takes him and
locks him up, and the owner of the bull pays the hundred pounds, he
cannot afterwards get the money back?"

"That is so," says the learned counsel