48 OCCASIONAL HAPPY THOUGHTS. 



young man could listen to without blushing. I drop in to 

 buy some stamps, 



Happy Thought. — Object for a walk, to go to the village 

 and buy stamps. 



Must have some object in view, or should never take any 

 exercise. When my horse is here I can ride in and buy 

 stamps ; or ride to all sorts of villages for miles round to 

 buy stamps. Could (for the sake of making a necessity 

 for exercise) invent for myself a pleasant fiction as to their 

 selling better stamps at one village than another. The 

 farther the village, the better the stamps. Besides, there's 

 something of the genuine countrified idea about this : it's 

 like going about marketing : it suggests the pillion and my 

 Aunt up behind with a basket : Old Dobbin, jog-trot, top- 

 boots, heavy-handled whip, low-crowned hat, and dialogue 

 along the road. " Well, Fayrmer, 'ow be'est this marning .? 

 an 'ow be yew mam .? " and then we say we're going to buy 

 some stamps, and trot on. Of course, this is fanciful, but 

 still there is a pastoral sort of idea about it. 



" A shilling's worth of stamps, please," I say. 



The Young Post-Master, astonished as usual, appears to 

 be taken aback by this demand, and as he cannot at the 

 moment lay his hand on the stamps, an animated discussion 

 ensues between himself and his mother, who is having tea in 

 the little room behind the glass-windowed door, and won't 

 come out. 



The Young Post-Master won't open the door and show his 

 mother. He seems to keep her in there as a secret, and, as 



