ATJDUBON AND WILSON. 119 



crow, which chanticleer utters somewhat drowsily, and then 

 replaces his head beneath his wing, supported on one side by 

 a partlet, on the other by a hen. So we gathered up our 

 slippered feet from the rug, lamp in hand stalked along the 

 lobbies, unchained and unlocked the oak which our faithful 

 night porter Somnus had sported and lo ! a figure muffled 

 up in a cloak, and furred like a Russ, who advanced familiarly 

 into the hall, extended both hands, and then embracing us, 

 bade God bless us, and pronounced, with somewhat of a 

 foreign accent, the name in which we and the world rejoice 

 " Christopher North !" We were not slow in returning the 

 hug fraternal for who was it but the " American Woods- 

 man ?" even Audubon himself fresh from the Floridas 

 and breathing of the pure air of far-off Labrador ! 



Three years and upwards had fled since we had taken fare- 

 well of the illustrious Ornithologist on the same spot at 

 the same hour ; and there was something ghostlike in such 

 return of a dear friend from a distant region almost as if 

 from the land of spirits. It seemed as if the same moon 

 again looked at us but then she was wan and somewhat 

 sad now clear as a diamond, and all the starry heavens 

 wore a smile. " Our words they were no" mony feck" but 

 in less time than we have taken to write it we two were 

 sitting cheek by jowl, and hand in hand, by that essential 

 fire while we showed by our looks that we both felt, now 

 they were over, that three years were but as one day ! The 

 cane coal-scuttle, instinct with spirit, beeted the fire of its 

 own accord, without word or beck of ours, as if placed there 

 by the hands of one of our wakeful Lares ; in globe of purest 

 crystal the Glenlivet shone ; unasked the bright brass kettle 

 began to whisper its sweet "under song;" and a centenary 

 of the fairest oysters native to our isle turned towards us 

 their languishing eyes, unseen the Nereid that had on the 

 instant wafted them from the procreant cradle beds of Pres- 

 tonpans. Grace said, we drew in to supper, and hobnobbing, 



