fell from one; they were loaded and primed, and no doubt had been intended for hostile operations: we therefore deferred the punishment, and handed our captives over to the civil power, by which they were shortly released on the payment of one dollar.

GENERAL INVITATIONS.

"PRAY do call in an easy way some evening, you and Mrs. Balderstone: we are sure to be at nome, and shall be most happy to see you." Such is the kind of invitation one is apt to get from considerably intimate acquaintances, who, equally resolved against the formality and the expense of a particular entertainment on your account, hope to avoid both evils by making your visit a matter of accident. If you be a man of some experience, you will know that all such attempts to make bread and cheese do that, which is more properly the business of a pair of fowls,

end in disappointment, and you will, therefore, take care to wait till the general invitation becomes a particular one. But there are inexperienced people in this world who think everything as it seems, and are apt to be greatly deceived regarding this accidental mode of visiting. For the sake of these last, I shall relate the following adventure:

I had been remarkably busy one summer, and, consequently, obliged to refuse all kinds of invitations, general and particular. The kind wishes of my friends had accumulated upon me somewhat after the manner of the tunes frozen up in Baron Munchausen's French horn; and it seemed as if a whole month would have been necessary to thaw out and discharge the whole of these obligations. A beginning, however, is always something; and, accordingly, one splashy evening in November, I can't tell how it was, but a desire came simultaneously over myself and Mrs. Bal

derstone-it seemed to be by sympathy-of stepping out to see Mr. and Mrs. Currie, a married pair, who had been considerably more pressing in their general invitations than any other of our friends. We both knew that there was a cold duck in the house, besides a bit of cheese just sent home by Nicholson, and understood to be more than excellent. But, as the old Scots song says, the tid had come over us, and forth we must go. No sooner said than done. Five minutes more saw us leaving our comfortable home, my wife carrying a cap pinned under her cloak, while to my pocket was consigned her umbrageous comb. As we paced along, we speculated only on the pleasure which we should give to our kind friends by thus at last paying them a visit, when perhaps all hope of our ever doing so was dead within. them. Nor was it possible altogether to omit reflecting, like the dog invited by his friends to sup, upon the entertainment which lay before

us; for certainly on such an occasion the fatted calf could hardly expect to be spared.

Full of the satisfaction which we were to give and receive, we were fully into the house before we thought it necessary to inquire if any body was at home. The servant girl, surprised by the forward confidence of our entrée, evidently forgot her duty, and acknowledged, when she should have denied, the presence of her master and mistress in the house. We were shown into a dining-room as clean, cold, and stately, as an alabaster cave, and which had the appearance of being but rarely lighted by the blaze of hospi tality. My first impulse was to relieve my pocket, before sitting down, of the comb, which I thought was now about being put to its proper use; but the chill of the room stayed my hand. I observed, at the same time, that my wife, like the man under the influence of Æolus in the fable, manifested no symptom of parting with her cloak.