"SEASONABLE WEATHERS 171 



entertainment. You are just the man he wants, and are 

 given to understand that he has cast you for a part in a 

 arce, your duty in which will consist in decking your- 

 self in some absurd costume, coming in, and letting him 

 empty a bag ol flour on your head, or smudge your face 

 with lamp-black. " Awfully good situation ; the people 

 will yell with laughter ! " he tells you, but you don't see 

 it, and are set down as a surly creature, devoid of all 

 notion of true humour. 



Suppose the frost continues through the whole winter ! 

 Suppose there were to be no hunting for weeks, no 

 chance of proving the excellence of a carefully chosen 

 stud, seeing whether the little bay mare was as good as 

 she looked, and how much discount must be allowed 

 from the eulogistic assertions of her late owner ? These 

 are the thoughts which afflict us as we take up the paper 

 again to read the weather prophecies, and make angry 

 assaults on the barometer, which resents the insult by 

 behaving worse than ever. 



But we know that there is a good time coming, though 

 we may not always be able to fix the precise date. 

 The English climate is as variable as Virgil tells us 

 lovely woman is, and if sometimes your hopes are 

 dashed, at other times your evil anticipations are 

 agreeably disappointed. When you expect to find by 

 your bed-side those stay-at-home garments to which 

 reference has been made above, lo and behold ! in 

 comes your man, with a smile on his face, and your 

 breeches on his arm. He proclaims it to be a fine 



