Not long since, a company of horse-riders paid a visit to our
watering-place. We went to see them, and I bethought me that young
Walter Juvenis, who was in the place, might like also to witness the
performance. A pantomime is not always amusing to persons who have
attained a certain age; but a boy at a pantomime is always amused and
amusing, and to see his pleasure is good for most hypochondriacs.

We sent to Walter's mother, requesting that he might join us, and
the kind lady replied that the boy had already been at the morning
performance of the equestrians, but was most eager to go in the evening
likewise. And go he did; and laughed at all Mr. Merryman's remarks,
though he remembered them with remarkable accuracy, and insisted upon
waiting to the very end of the fun, and was only induced to retire just
before its conclusion by representations that the ladies of the party
would be incommoded if they were to wait and undergo the rush and
trample of the crowd round about. When this fact was pointed out to
him, he yielded at once, though with a heavy heart, his eyes looking
longingly towards the ring as we retreated out of the booth. We were
scarcely clear of the place, when we heard "God save the Queen," played
by the equestrian band, the signal that all was over. Our companion
entertained us with scraps of the dialogue on our way home--precious
crumbs of wit which he had brought away from that feast. He laughed over
them again as we walked under the stars. He has them now, and takes them
out of the pocket of his memory, and crunches a bit, and relishes it
with a sentimental tenderness, too, for he is, no doubt, back at school
by this time; the holidays are over; and Doctor Birch's young friends
have reassembled.

Queer jokes, which caused a thousand simple mouths to grin! As the jaded
Merryman uttered them to the old gentleman with the whip, some of the