there 's
another--and there 's another," and suiting the action to the word, he
discharged into the bed upon him a shower of white-looking balls; but
they happened to be, not snow-balls, but pound-notes squeezed into the
shape--report said, twenty in number. The gentleman took the practical
but benevolent hint, and departed, carrying with him the snow-balls, not
melted. In his more serious mood, he, one Sabbath, met a girl returning
from church, and inquired what church she had been attending. He then
walked with her a long time, discoursing upon the slight shades of
difference amongst the various religious denominations, and concluded,
"I shall not see it, but I believe that, in course of time, there will
be only one sheepfold under the one Shepherd."

Labour at Fleurs was a twin to mirth. We were always having festivities.
The duke was ingenious in devising reasons for them. Because he was
Scotch by origin, he celebrated all the peculiar Scottish festivals;
because he was English by residence, he celebrated all the peculiar
English festivals; because in his youth the "Old Style" of computing the
year was still used, he first of all held Old Year's Day, and New Year's
Day, and Twelfth Night, according to the new style, and then repeated
the observance all over again, according to the old style. And there was
a constant succession, the whole year through, of birth-days, and the
commemoration of public holidays and rejoicings.

"It was a merry place in days of yore."

Suppose summer shining in all its pride, and that labour is to enjoy one
of its highest festivals at Fleurs. All work ceases at noon; and by two,
the people, dressed in holiday attire, muster at the trysting-spot, and
march in a body to the castle, preceded by Tam Anderson, the duke's
piper, a grave, old-fashioned man, in livery of green coat and black
velvet breeches--a fossil specimen he of what the Border minstrel once
was, when his art was in its prime. As Tam drones away on his bagpipe
"Lumps o' Puddin'," and "Brose and Butter," they take their places at
three long tables, covering a large court. Three hundred workpeople and
their families are there; for the duke sternly forbids any but his own
people to be present. It is in vain for me, whose knowledge of cookery
never extended beyond the Edinburgh student's fare of mince collops and
Prestonpans beer, to attempt a description of this monster-feast--the
mountains of beef and dumplings, the wilder