THE FATE OF OUE VENTURE. 7 



resemble our prototype, except that we rob in open daylight 

 and thankfully acknowledge what we appropriate. There 

 are yet other points of resemblance, more personal, between 

 ourselves and the house Cricket. As with him, a warm hearth 

 in winter and a sunny bank in summer are the seats of our 

 supreme felicity. Like him, also, we joy in the possession of a 

 quiet retreat, and prefer to uplift our voice from behind a screen. 

 We have now set forth quite as much of our design, and 

 revealed as much of our personality as has become connected 

 with our immediate subject, and from the scattered grains of 

 intimation already dropt, some prying reader may even now 

 have gleaned more about the Cricket's ways and whereabouts 

 than we have thought it expedient to reveal. Something more 

 of them may be disclosed hereafter. Meanwhile, surmise what 

 thou wilt, good gossip ! but, above all, we entreat thee to bear 

 in mind that, alike in our proper and our emblematic cha- 

 racter, we most heartily rejoice in all that warms and all that 

 cheers. 





sliaU" lir 



