16 Dozing. [JULY, 



grandfather to the thirteenth grandson, you will find an ascending dispo- 

 sition about the tip of the nose ; and (what seems natural enough) this 

 disposition often decreases in a gradual proportion from the first to the last 

 of the flock. Others are all notable for certain coloured eyes, hair, and 

 small feet ; and some the most disagreeable specimen of all are cele- 

 brated for surly dispositions. I have known a family of a dozen living 

 creatures, where the spirit of surliness was more or less abounding in each. 

 They were nicknamed u The Surlys." But to come to the fact imme- 

 diately connected with the subject. I am in the habit of paying an occa- 

 sional visit to a dozing family from the grey-locked father to the infant 

 in the nurse's arms. What is rather paradoxical, too, they are not remark- 

 able for stupidity : several of the sons are authors and magazine retainers. 

 Yet I never call in without finding one of the flock dozing. Sometimes 

 the sire is bending his head over his bosom, with an emptied wine-bottle 

 before him. Sometimes the mother is leant back in her arm-chair, with 

 her hands in a supplicatory posture. Sunday evening is the time for these 

 dozers. Why (erectile Pisones ?J I have often entered the room, and 

 actually found five or six all in a doze ! Whether dozing, like gaping, is 

 catching, let the reader determine for himself. Not to be a dozer among 

 dozers, is perfect torture among the narcotic race above-mentioned, for 

 instance; talk to the father, and his answers gradually become more 

 fretful, until, out of politeness, you must not pain him by a repetition of 

 questions. Try the mother next : she yawns (genteely, of course) cries 

 " O dear me !" that's a broad hint that can't be mistaken. If, as a last 

 resort, you commence an attack on the sons, their hearty intimacy with 

 you permits them to drop at once from the colloquy into a doze : the best 

 thing you can do is to sympathize with them. R. M. 



THE EMBARRASSMENTS OF A SHEPHERDESS I 

 A RONDO. 



[From the French.] 



To guard her heart and her flock too 



Is too much for a shepherdess: 

 What can a gentle maiden do 

 To guard her heart and her flock too ? 

 When all the swains her heart pursue, 



And all the wolves her flocks distress, 

 To guard her heart and her flock too 



Is too much for a shepherdess. 



H.N. 



