EPISODES 255 



whilst an extraordinary collar, carefully arranged, fell 

 over the top of his coat. The latter was of a light green 

 color, harmonizing well with a pair of flowing yellow 

 nankeen trousers, and a pink waistcoat, from the bosom 

 of which, amidst a large bunch of the splendid flowers of 

 the magnolia, protruded part of a young Alligator, which 

 seemed more anxious to glide through the muddy waters 

 of some retired swamp than to spend its life swinging to 

 and fro among folds of the finest lawn. The gentleman 

 held in one hand a cage full of richly-plumed Nonpareils, 

 whilst in the other he sported a silk umbrella, on which 

 I could plainly read, " Stolen from I," these words being 

 painted in large white characters. He walked as if con- 

 scious of his own importance — that is, with a good deal of 

 pomposity, singing, "My love is but a lassie yet," and 

 that with such thorough imitation of the Scotch emphasis 

 that had not his physiognomy brought to my mind a 

 denial of his being from "within a mile of Edinburgh," 

 I should have put him down in my journal for a true Scot. 

 But no : his tournure, nay, the very shape of his visage, 

 pronounced him an American from the farthest parts of 

 our eastern Atlantic shores. 



All this raised my curiosity to such a height that I 

 accosted him with, "Pray, sir, will you allow me to exam- 

 ine the birds you have in that cage } " The gentleman 

 stopped, straightened his body, almost closed his left 

 eye, then spread his legs apart, and, with a look alto- 

 gether quizzical, answered, "Birds, sir; did you say 

 birds .' " I nodded, and he continued, " What the devil 

 do you know about birds, sir.' " 



Reader, this answer brought a blush into my face. I 

 felt as if caught in a trap ; for I was struck by the force of 

 the gentleman's question — which, by the way, was not 

 much in discordance with a not unusual mode of granting 

 an answer in the United States. Sure enough, thought 

 I, little or perhaps nothing do I know of the nature of 



