38 OCCASIONAL HAPPY THOUGHTS. 



hand. Remember it as first-rate when I was stopping there. 

 Everybody civil and pleasant. Long man observes that he 

 was not going there at first, but, since I recommended it, he 

 will. He was, in fact, he says, going to the Hotel de Paris, 

 just on the opposite side ; but since / am going to the Big 

 Hotel, why so will he. Quite hearty and affectionate. I tell 

 him he couldn't do better, and it occurs to me that if the Big 

 Hotel is, as I've heard, chock full, and there's only one bed 

 there, which of us will have it ? I will, for choice, as I don't 

 like the sound of " Hotel de Paris " in England : it's too 

 much like Leicester Square. 



At the door of the Big Hotel, close to the harbour, Folke- 

 stone. I anticipate a hearty greeting (because when I stayed 

 here before, I had established most amicable relations with 

 the Bootses and Waiters generally), even though qualified 

 by regret at their being unable to give me the best bed-room 

 in the house. No signs of life anywhere. The Hotel has 

 its eyes shut, its eyelids closed, and you can almost hear it 

 snoring in the moonlight. Boots is asleep, too. 



Happy Thought. — Tlie Sleeping Booty. 



Ring him up, or ring him down ; depends, of course, upon 

 where he may be. Through the glass door, we see Night 

 Porter advancing. I notice a deep, a very deep, growl from 

 somewhere. Not a sharp, short growl, with something in it 

 of the ejaculatory brevity of a satisfied grunt, but a prolonged, 

 steady growl, proceeding, I soon find, from something large 

 and black underneath the hall table ; a growl not to be 

 finished properly, except by a sudden leap out upon the 



