8 







meeting house with his curiosities, I called in ; we shook 

 hands; he said "William, do you recollect what the 

 Scriptures say." I answered " it says many things I do 

 not recollect, some things true, and others not true," 

 He said that Christ said, "my house was a house of 

 prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." I re- 

 plied, very true indeed, if you count yourself among 

 the number." The company present laughed at the re- 

 ply perhaps they thought it applicable to my friend 

 Grint has not said any thing about Comstock's cider,* 

 * This cider affair is comparatively of recent date ; the facts 

 are very peculiar and well established. A few years ago, a 

 gentleman rented a cellar of Grant Thorburn, in which he de- 

 posited cider. A number of bottles were repeatedly missing, 

 and the clerk in whose care the cellar was, being suspected, or 

 fearing that he should be, determined to watch for the thief: 

 he had already ascertained that the cider was taken in the night 

 or on Sundays, and by somebody in possession of a key ; for 

 when he had left all things right at night, he found in the mor- 

 ning the door locked and all safe, with the exception of some 

 few bottles which had mysteriously disappeared. W ith this 

 clue, he resolved to remain in the cellar all of one Saturday- 

 night, during which nothing was disturbed; but on the Sunday 

 morning, while thecleikyet remained in the cellar, Mr. Grant 

 Thorburn entered with a Key, and taking up several bottles of 

 cider was about to decamp, when the clerk seized him with the 

 cider in his possession, and in the cellar. Grant, fairly caught, 

 made his excuses, and attempted to influence the young man 

 whose reputation had been so much injured by this secret ab- 

 duction of property, which must have been carried on for a 

 long while before suspicion could have been aroused, and for 

 some time after, before the clerk v/ould resolve on so unpleasant 

 an experiment as spending a night and a Sunday alone in a ci- 

 4t r cellar, A reference was matte to the police, but Grant being 



