his hands in astonishment, "has so remarkable an incident been heard
of."

Now came in the Clerk of the Weather, who had been invited out of
deference to his official station, although the host was well aware
that his conversation was likely to contribute but little to the
general enjoyment. He soon, indeed, got into a corner with his
acquaintance of long ago, the Oldest Inhabitant, and began to
compare notes with him in reference to the great storms, gales of
wind, and other atmospherical facts that had occurred during a
century past. It rejoiced the Man of Fancy that his venerable and
much-respected guest had met with so congenial an associate.
Entreating them both to make themselves perfectly at home, he now
turned to receive the Wandering Jew. This personage, however, had
latterly grown so common, by mingling in all sorts of society and
appearing at the beck of every entertainer, that he could hardly be
deemed a proper guest in a very exclusive circle. Besides, being
covered with dust from his continual wanderings along the highways
of the world, he really looked out of place in a dress party; so
that the host felt relieved of an incommodity when the restless
individual in question, after a brief stay, took his departure on a
ramble towards Oregon.

The portal was now thronged by a crowd of shadowy people with whom
the Man of Fancy had been acquainted in his visionary youth. He had
invited them hither for the sake of observing how they would
compare, whether advantageously or otherwise, with the real
characters to whom his maturer life had introduced him. They were
beings of crude imagination, such as glide before a young man's eye
and pretend to be actual inhabitants of the earth; the wise and