would be a strange record if a man were to chronicle his birthdays,
keeping faithful note of his changed and changing nature as years stole
on. For myself I have always regarded them somewhat like post-stations
in a journey, ever expecting to find better horses and smoother roads
next stage, and constantly promising myself to be more equable in
temperament and more disposed to enjoy my tour. But the journey of life,
like all other journeys, puts to flight the most matured philosophy, and
the accidents of the way are always ready to divert the mind from its
firmest resolves.

Tuesday Morning, When I had written so far last night, the arrival of
a travelling carriage and four, with a Courier preceding, caused such
a commotion in the little inn that, notwithstanding all my assumed
indifference, I could not entirely escape the contagion, and, at last,
was fain to open my window and stare at the new arrival with all the
hardihood that becomes him already in possession of an apartment. "I
took little by my motion." All I saw was a portly travelling carriage,
heavily laden with its appurtenances and imperials, well-corded springs,
rope-lashed pole, and double drag-chains,--evidences of caution and
signs of long-projected travel.

I might have readily forgotten the new comer--indeed, I had almost done
so ere I closed the window--had not his memory been preserved for me
by a process peculiar to small and unfrequented inns,--a species of
absorption by which the traveller of higher pretensions invariably
draws in all the stray articles of comfort scattered through the
establishment. First my table took flight, and in its place a small
and ricketty thing of white deal had arrived; next followed a
dressing-glass; then waddled forth a fat, unwieldy, old arm-chair,
that seemed by its difficulty of removal to have strong objections to
locomotion; and lastly, a chest of drawers set out on its travels, but
so stoutly did it resist, that it was not captured without the loss
of two legs, while every drawer was thrown out upon the floor, to the
manifest detriment of the waiter's shins and ankles. These "distraints"
I bore well and equably, and it was only a summary demand to surrender a
little sofa on which I lay that at length roused me from my apathy, and
I positively demurred, asking, I suppose, querulously enough, who it
was that required the whole accommodation of the inn, and could spare
nothing for another traveller? An "English Pri