50 BUFFALO LAND. 



seemed equally pre-empted by philosophy and bugs. 

 Engaging in some immense work for the ameliora- 

 tion of mankind, he would pursue it with ardor, dwell 

 upon it with unction, and then suddenly leave it, half 

 finished, to capture a rare spider. Philosophy and 

 Entomology had constant combat for Colon, and vic- 

 tory tarried with neither long enough for the seat 

 of war to be cultivated and blossom with any lux- 

 uriance. At the time he joined our party one of his 

 grandest charitable projects had lately died in a very 

 early period of infancy, entirely supplanted in his 

 affections for the time being by the prospect of a 

 chase after Brazilian insects. During our journey it 

 was no uncommon thing for us to see his thin form 

 all covered with bugs and reptiles, which had crawled 

 out of the collecting boxes carried in his pockets. 

 If this meets our friend's e3^e, let him bear no malice, 

 but reflect, in the language of his own invariable 

 answer to our remonstrances, ''It can't be helped." 

 Sliould the public parade of his faults be disagreea- 

 ble, he can suffer no more from them now than we did 

 in the past, and may perhaps call them into closer 

 quarters for the future. 



Mr. Colon's son, of two years less than a score, we 

 dubbed Semi-colon, as being a smaller edition, or to 

 be exact, precisely one-half of what the senior Colon 

 was. So perfect was the concord of the two that the 

 junior had fallen into a chronic and to us amusing- 

 habit of answering " Ditto " to the senior's expressions 

 of opinion. Divide the father's conversation by two, 

 add an assent to every thing, and the result, socially 

 considered, would be the son. It may readily be seen, 



