"It wasn't only in English but Scotch ballads, too, and once or twice in
Italian that he recited, till at last he gave out, in all the fulness of
his liquid voice, them elegant lines out of Pope's Homer:--

"'As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene,
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole:
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And top with silver every mountain's head;
Then shine the vales; the rocks in prospect rise--
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies;
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault and bless the useful light.'

"The Lord forgive me, but when he came to the last words and said,
'useful light,' I couldn't restrain myself, but broke out, 'That's
mighty like a bull, anyhow, and reminds me of the ould song,--

"'Good luck to the moon, she's a fine noble creature,
And gives us the daylight all night in the dark.'

"Before I knew where I was, the boat glided in to the steps, and a tall
man, a little stooped in the shoulders, stood before me.

"'Is it you,' said he, with a quiet laugh, 'that accuses Pope of a
bull?'

"'It is,' says I; 'and, what's more, there isn't a poet from Horace
downwards that I won't show bulls in; there's bulls in Shakspeare and
in Milton; there's bulls in the ancients; I 'll point out a bull in
Aristophanes.'

"'What have we here?' said he, turning to the others.

"'A poor crayture,' says I, 'like Goldsmith's chest of drawers,--

"'With brains reduced a doable debt to pay, To dream by night, sell
Sheffield ware by day.'

"Well, with that he took a fit of laughing, and handing the rest out
of the boat, he made me come along at his side, discoorsin' me about
my thravels, and all I seen, and all I read, till we reached an elegant
little cottage on a bank right over the lake; and then he brought me in
and made me take tay with the family; and I spent the night there; and
when I started the next morning there was n't a 'screed' of my pack that
they did n't buy, penknives, and whistles, and nut-crackers, and all,
just, as they said, for keepsakes. Good luck to them, and happy hearts,
wherever they are, for they made mine happy that day; ay, and for many
an hour afterwards, when I just think