the "_occasional memoranda_," and were brought to a dead stop by
the "_general accounts_;" not that his ideas stopped on paper, for he
continued them in bed. Brown dreamed "his ship had come home;"--that he
dwelt in a Belgravian palace; that he was an M.P.;--that he was known as
_Brown_, the "King of 'Change"--that he ruled with an iron ruler--that
he was enthroned upon a cash-box--that he wore a crown of dollars--that
the four quarters of the globe adored him--that Great and Little Britain
worshipped him;--that the _world_ told his _wife_, Brown was a great
man:--but, alas!--trains of wild ideas, like locomotives that go too
fast, may run off the rail when least expected, or explode as a train of
gunpowder, without notice; so, in Mr. Brown's imagination, he feels as
if shot into the air, after being dreadfully scalded--Mrs. Brown, kind
soul, having applied a bottle of boiling water (forgetting the flannel)
to the feet of her spouse, before retiring, herself--that good lady
little thinking it was so warm. But there were other things Mrs. Brown
did not know of; for she little thought the servants were round the
kitchen-fire, quiet as mice, all deep in the "Mysteries of the Courts
and Sewers of London"--a work affording the greatest amount of horrible
excitement at the lowest rate,--a book in which Alphonso has discovered
a Captain de Camp; and cook, a Lady Thingamy, whom, she says, "ain't no
better than she should be"--a rather vague but significant truth, that
might as appropriately have been applied to a saint as to a sinner,
though cook intended it for the latter:--as to the Capting, the only
think she had agin him was a wish he wouldn't spile everythink with soy
and cayenne, for it got into the wash, and made the pigs sneeze. Mary,
too, must have her opinion--saying Wellesley wasn't no gentleman, for he
wiped his dirty boots on the towels, and would pull the plug out of the
wash-bason when there was nothing under to catch the soapy water. During
this scandal, John, whom all thought knew something, only said the
Captain was _an umbug_--as he noiselessly disappeared, bearing his shoes
in his hand; for it was considerably past midnight.

Young Brown and his two friends are at the "Planets" harmonic meeting,
stating their intention not to return till morning--an useless
proclamation, for it is impossible to do otherwise, now--they having
been at the Casino, "getting their feet in," for the hop on Friday,
as young Brown te