THE OYSTER. 15 



attach to matters connected with the world in which 

 we live, depends, of course, in a great measure, on the 

 manner in which they view them. 



One person considers a loving wife, and four hun- 

 dred a year, wealth and happiness; another would be 

 miserable without four thousand, and could dispense 

 with the wife. Some consider a post with five thousand 

 a year a tolerable means of existence ; others a commis- 

 sionership with twelve hundred. Some seek a good 

 consulship; others, till they have travelled from St. 

 Petersburg and back in a telega, or sledge, half a dozen 

 times during mid- winter, use the interest, which in 

 other days would have secured a snug governorship, 

 even in the Island of Barataria, to obtain a queen's 

 messenger's place. At least so it used to be. "Whether 

 competitive examinations will lead to our having the 

 right man in the right place, the round pegs in round 

 holes, and the square pegs in square ones, still remains 

 to be seen. And so is it with most things in life, 

 whether personal or gastronomical. Different men are 

 of different opinions ; some like apples, and some like — 

 onions ; but I have scarcely ever yet met with the man 

 who has refused a thoroughly good oyster. 



There is not a man, however unobservant, but knows 

 that oysters are a great source of profit to some of that 

 multitude which rises every morning without knowing 

 exactly how, when, and where it shall dine. Billings- 

 gate in the oyster season is a sight and a caution. Boats 

 coming in loaded ; porters struggling with baskets and 

 sacks ; early loungers looking on — it is so pleasant to 

 see other people work — buyers and cheapeners, the fish 



