ark's, and our
own; which, upon leaving, they did not identify:--though, we think they
ought; as ours were considerably newer--one of their hats being a cap,
and the other of dirty white felt!

After the departure of the show, we got up some sport with the sheets
upon which it had been performed, exhibiting our eyes through a hole,
therein; those on the obverse trying to guess the proprietor of others
on the reverse--all the owners of bright eyes much enjoying the sport.
But to recount the many pranks played by youthful blood that evening,
would require a volume--everybody proposing everything; and everybody
else, disliking the thing proposed, suggests some other:--one wanting
Hunt the Whistle; a second, to act Charades; and a third, some practical
joke of the old school, such as the game we played with Mr. Lark, called
Porcelain Mesmerism, deceiving the little innocents into a belief that
men are simple--much more so than they will find them, upon arriving at
maturity!--There we sat (two full-grown fools) staring at each other,
with plates of water in our hands, the bottom of one sooty, the other
clean!--There we sat, face to face, alternately rubbing the bottoms of
the plates, and stroking our physiognomies, in mockery of each
other--Mr. Lark getting his face blacked like a sweep,--the youngsters
laughing at his silliness!--Oh, that a little smut should produce such
ecstatic mirth!

[Illustration]

There is Walter Merry, looking like an eel in convulsions--imagining he
has been here about an hour:--you should have seen the expression of the
little fellow, when Mrs. Brown gently tapped him on the shoulder,
saying, "Master Merry, you're fetched!" Time was annihilated, and memory
dumbfounded!--The entertainment that had been looked forward to for
days, counted by the hours, and put so many mammas in a pother, is
gone!--The hands of the hall-clock are almost perpendicular--it wants
but half-an-hour of midnight!--Several anxious mammas have sent several
times for their several little ones; and the several servants have been
sent away with several evasive answers--for "the little dears are
enjoying themselves so much!"--"Mrs. Brown's compliments to Mrs.
Fidgets, and would she permit the little Fidgets to stay just ten
minutes longer?" No!--the Fidgety footman is only to depart _with_ them;
so he is sent to the servants' hall, there to wait, whilst snap-dragon
is being prepared in the library--that the evening may end w