88 The Hon. Adolphus Lightfoot. 



seated about the most serious family it was ever our lot to 

 contemplate. It consisted of papa, mamma, two cubs 

 of sons just merging into manhood, three girls in their 

 teens, and their governess. 



There they sat, without opening their mouths except to 

 eat. Mamma looked crushed, the boys looked sulky, and 

 the girls, who were pleasant, rosy-cheeked damsels enough, 

 were evidently kept under. We very quickly decided that 

 it was 



" The father, who was so grim a guffin 

 He never liked no fun nor nuffin," 



who was the cause of all this, and we pitied his family ac- 

 cordingly. He was, indeed, a morose-looking party. The 

 words of the ballad-writer applied equally well to the said 



family, for 



"They each had a face as long as a ladder," 



and certainly 



" Father and mother, sister and brother, 

 Never spoke a word to one another." 



except when any of them wanted anything, when the word 

 was passed down in a whisper to the poor little governess, 

 being the only one of the party who understood the lan- 

 guage of the country, with orders to ask for the article 

 required. Miss Brown's (that was the little governess's 

 name) face would then be suddenly suffused with blushes 

 until she looked like an animated peony, and she would then, 

 conscious that not only were the eyes of the Serious Family 

 on her, but the whole of the table d'hote as well, murmur 

 forth a request to the waiter to bring '' du pang " or '' der 

 I'eau " as the case might be. To which the gargon would 

 invariably reply in a condescending tone of voice, " Zom 

 brad? yas ; won mineet, mademoiselle !" 



Now, the volatile Dolly, who, never being able to be 

 serious for two mnu.es together himself, had a natural 



