use to boast of anything until it 's done, nor then either, for it
speaks for itself."

How often since I have been reminded of the fish that I did not catch!
When I hear people boasting of a work as yet undone, and trying to
anticipate the credit which belongs only to actual achievement, I call
to mind that scene by the brookside, and the wise caution of my uncle in
that particular instance takes the form of a proverb of universal
application: "Never brag of your fish before you catch him."






YANKEE GYPSIES.

"Here's to budgets, packs, and wallets; Here's to all the wandering
train."
BURNS.

I CONFESS it, I am keenly sensitive to "skyey influences." I profess no
indifference to the movements of that capricious old gentleman known as
the clerk of the weather. I cannot conceal my interest in the behavior
of that patriarchal bird whose wooden similitude gyrates on the church
spire. Winter proper is well enough. Let the thermometer go to zero if
it will; so much the better, if thereby the very winds are frozen and
unable to flap their stiff wings. Sounds of bells in the keen air,
clear, musical, heart-inspiring; quick tripping of fair moccasined feet
on glittering ice pavements; bright eyes glancing above the uplifted