moral admonitions which produced none at all. Finally, it was late
in the afternoon before I got back to the unprecedented chapter,
and then I determined that it was out of the season, as the place
was, and put it away.

I went at night to the benefit of Mrs. B. Wedgington at the
Theatre, who had placarded the town with the admonition, 'DON'T
FORGET IT!' I made the house, according to my calculation, four
and ninepence to begin with, and it may have warmed up, in the
course of the evening, to half a sovereign. There was nothing to
offend any one, - the good Mr. Baines of Leeds excepted. Mrs. B.
Wedgington sang to a grand piano. Mr. B. Wedgington did the like,
and also took off his coat, tucked up his trousers, and danced in
clogs. Master B. Wedgington, aged ten months, was nursed by a
shivering young person in the boxes, and the eye of Mrs. B.
Wedgington wandered that way more than once. Peace be with all the
Wedgingtons from A. to Z. May they find themselves in the Season
somewhere!



A POOR MAN'S TALE OF A PATENT



I AM not used to writing for print. What working-man, that never
labours less (some Mondays, and Christmas Time and Easter Time
excepted) than twelve or fourteen hours a day, is? But I have been
asked to put down, plain, what I have got to say; and so I take
pen-and-ink, and do it to the best of my power, hoping defects will