were graduated, a class of twenty-nine; of this number only nineteen are surviving, counting some bachelors as existing of whom I have no certain knowledge! It seems but as yesterday that we were boys; and now we are mature men, clergymen, physicians, lawyers, merchants, judges, legislators, fathers in the Republic! It never occurred to me before that I am getting old. It is time for me to repent and reform. Dr. Wilson used to say that our class was the worst class that he ever had to do with, and he was pleased to assure me upon one occasion that I was the worst young "mon" in it. I wonder whether I have improved any. But he did me injustice there, I never threw a torpedo on the floor between the Doctor's legs, merely to see him jump, nor did I ever let loose in the lecture-room a mouse, or any other quadruped, as did some sad boys with longer faces, and in better credit than myself. I seriously affirm that my only guilt has been that of an accessory after the fact, in laughing at the silly joke. Yet I had not occasionally to suffer for imputed transgressions, as thou, dear Doc., canst testify. But I never quarrelled with thee, Doc., about that matter-and it is all over now. Let the thing go.

Here I am! here I am! And what am I, that I am left to write these reminiscences? Where is my recorded merit, my service done to the church, or to my country, of which this prolonged duration of life is the reward? Let me retire, and give myself an examination. I am, I think, awakened.

A FEW INTERESTING INCIDENTS IN THE TEREXISTENCE OF A YOUNG MAN

RESTRIAL

WHO USED TO LIKE HORSES.

I LOVE a good, fast horse. I luxuriate in a well balanced buggy. If my biograghy be ever written, "gaudet equis” will be the weathercock quotation set above the history to show which way the wind of its lucubration is about to blow. My equine propensities were developed as soon as I could toddle upon truant feet to the nearest stable in the neighborhood. At the sixth year's existence, I abstracted a shilling from my stepmother's work box, to pay the man that kept the zebra; but I honestly paid it back, with funds acquired the next day by running away from school and holding the horses of two militia colonels, when they dismounted on the parade ground, for a grand review by the brigadier general.

Our milk-man had a horse; he was not a very especial beauty; but couldn't he go fast around the corner! I once knocked down a little peanut girl, and turned Maiden-lane into a very palpably milky way, by trying to find the maximum of proximity which might be attained between a pump and the hub of a wheel, without any necessary collision of contiguous particles of matter. Like many other philosophers, I came near sacrificing my life to my scientific zeal, just at the moment when I deemed my discovery secure, and my triumph certain and glorious. The jealous fates, as usual, interfered, and with violent rage at my promised success, precipitated me across the street into the centre of the peanut establishment just referred to. Down went the lady-merchant, and down went her apples, peanuts and barbers'-poles. I felt sorry for the poor thing, but it was all her fault, for not getting out

of the way; or else it was the fault of the corporation in planting such a stubborn hydrodynamical obstacle at the corner of the street.

This was but the preface to more glorious exploits, the entitulement of a long chapter of spirit-stirring accidents. The incidents of my life have been but a catalogue of the names of danger. I have been run away with by frightened, and kicked and bitten by vicious steeds; I have been thrown from stumblers; I have broken down in sulkies; I have been upset in gigs-in fine, for the whole catalogue would be tedious, I have been crushed, and banged and bruised, and battered in all manner of imaginable fashions; so that it is a crying mercy that I have fingers left to write this penitential confession. Indeed, when I reflect upon my various hairbreath salvations, I cannot help thinking of what an eminently amiable Dutch gentlewoman told certain foraging pupils of a country boarding-school, concerning some choice forbidden. fruit, touching which we had mounted a tree in her garden. "Don't hook them are cherries, boys," she screamed, "I'me resarved them for presarves." O! what a jubilate would go up from my blessed maiden aunts, were the promise of a hope to be shadowed forth, that I am reserved for some better function than to moisten the shears of Mistress Beldame Atropos!

When I had escaped so far as my sixteenth year, I was driving a spirited, half-broken colt before a pleasure wagon, near a country village, in the neighborhood of which myself and my companion expected to shoot on the succeeding day. It was just at night, and our journey was nearly completed. All of a sudden, our whiffle-tree became detached from the vehicle, and fell upon the horse's heels. Off then he started, in the madness of his fright, utterly uncontrollable, and whirling us after him in the bounding wagon. The trees and fences

appeared and vanished like lightning; we seemed to fly. All that I could pray for, was to be able to keep our racer in the road, and I hoped to hold him on a straight and steady run, until the furious animal should be exhausted. Vain hope! my hands were soon powerless from the strain of holding and sawing and pulling on the reins. Just at this crisis, a little green lane, running at right angles with the turnpike, invited the wilful feet of our crazy colt, by a fair promise of an easy road, and a speedy barn-yard termination. But, alas! not three bounds had the runaway made upon his new chosen course, before he brought us upon a spot where they were mending the track, and where the way was accordingly strewn with huge, rough stones. That was the last I saw, and it is all I remember of the matter.

Two days afterwards, I awoke, and found myself in bed, in a strange place. I raised my hand to rub my eyes open, and dispel the supposed dream, but to my astonishment, I found that my arm was stiff and bandaged, as though I had been lately bled. I was weak and sore in all my bones. There was a smell of camphor in the room. A bottle marked " soap liniment," stood upon a table by my bed-side. The window

shutters were half closed, but a curiously cut crescent,-the crowning glory, no doubt, of the artificer of the domicil,-admitted the bright rays of a mid-day sun. All was still as the

solitude of a wilderness.

It was a neat,

I fell back upon the pillow in amazement. pleasant, little room, plainly, but comfortably furnished, adorned with peacocks' feathers, tastefully arranged around the walls, and a large boquet of fresh flowers in the fire-place. The appointments of the bed were delightful; the sheets were white as snow, and the curtains were of old-fashioned chintz, blue and white, presenting to my wondering eyes innumerable

little venuses and cupids. Why should I be a-bed there, and the sun shining in the window, bright as noonday?

A newspaper lay upon the foot of my bed; I took it up, and gazed upon it vacantly. It was the village hebdomodal, just moist from the press. A mist floated before my eyes as they fell upon my own name. When I regained my uncertain vision, I made out with difficulty to comprehend the following editorial announcement: "We regret to mention, that on Thursday evening last, a serious accident befell Mr. Renovare Dolorem, jun. and Dr. Cerberus Angelo, of New-York, as they were riding in a wagon, in the vicinity of this village. The horse taking fright, ran away, upset the vehicle, and threw out the gentlemen near the toll gate. Mr. D. was taken up for dead, but the doctor escaped unhurt. Fortunately, Squire Hoel Bones was passing by at the time, and he and the doctor conveyed Mr. D. to a house in the neighborhood, where, we are happy to say, every attention is rendered to the unfortunate sufferer. Mr. D. continues still insensible."

66

Here then was a development of the why and wherefore of my stiff joints and meridian repose. So, then, now for another week's repentance," I sighed aloud; but there was some one at the door, and I stopped and shut my eyes. I heard the rustling of frocks, and soft footsteps fell upon the floor, and presently the curtains were drawn aside, and I perceived the shadows of two light figures bending over me, and I heard low, restrained breathings. A small forefinger wandered about my wrist, in search of my pulse; a little hand was drawn several times across my forehead, and then it put back the tangled hair that overhung my eyebrows: I thought it seemed to linger about my temples, as though its owner wished there was another matted tuft yet to be adjusted.