132 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FAEM. 



fain to wear smock-frocks for incognito. The 

 plague that has reached its height in the present 

 decade, was beginning its infective process in the 

 last, of our nineteenth century. It knocked that 

 gentle knock at the door that ended a former 

 chapter of our chronicle ; and it was ushered in, 

 (as what plague is not?) in the most pleasing and 

 attractive form imaginable. 



A very young-looking little personage, very 

 smartly dressed, having sat himself down, and 

 got pretty well at ease in the course of a prelim- 

 inary announcement that he had ridden over thus 

 early in consequence of a visit to Messrs. Penn 

 and Debbitt on the previous day ; without giving 

 occasion of much reply, proceeded to deliver him- 

 self of a little harangue of which the world at 

 large having already been delayed the benefit 



had their inclinations been indulged, they would have proved 

 ' shining lights " to those around them, to become but moder- 

 ate masters of a " profession," or toil-worn and unsuccessful 

 aspirants in some one or other of the bustling pursuits of life, 

 in which competition has always elbowed them aside. Such 

 examples are not to be classed with the noisy pretenders 

 alluded to in the text, whoso long-practiced quackery has 

 rendered the uneducated farmer callous to the aspirations of 

 honest investigation. ED. 



