sure they are of an astounding complexion, especially to you and me."

"Mr. Pattison," said I, "I am quite at a loss to guess at your meaning.
_Davus sum, non Oedipus_--I am Jedediah Cleishbotham, Schoolmaster
of the parish of Gandercleuch; no conjuror, and neither reader of
riddles, nor expounder of enigmata."

"Well," replied Paul Pattison, "Mr. Jedediah Cleishbotham, Schoolmaster
of the parish of Gandercleuch, and so forth, all I have to inform you
is, that our hopeful scheme is entirely blown up. The tales, on
publishing which we reckoned with so much confidence, have already been
printed; they are abroad, over all America, and the British papers are
clamorous."

I received this news with the same equanimity with which I should have
accepted a blow addressed to my stomach by a modern gladiator, with the
full energy of his fist. "If this be correct information, Mr.
Pattison," said I, "I must of necessity suspect you to be the person
who have supplied the foreign press with the copy which the printers
have thus made an unscrupulous use of, without respect to the rights of
the undeniable proprietors of the manuscripts; and I request to know
whether this American production embraces the alterations which you as
well as I judged necessary, before the work could be fitted to meet the
public eye?" To this my gentleman saw it necessary to make a direct
answer, for my manner was impressive, and my tone decisive. His native
audacity enabled him, however, to keep his ground, and he answered with
firmness--

"Mr. Cleishbotham, in the first place, these manuscripts, over which
you claim a very doubtful right, were never given to any one by me, and