A little calculation would have saved a well-known novelist being taken to task by a fair graduate of Elmira College, who thus relieved her mind by writing as follows to the College magazine: ‘In a novel of Miss Braddon's, a book of wonderful plot and incident, the hero, after coming to grief in a civilised country, went to Australia to make his fortune; and while yet an apprentice at the pick and shovel, found an immense nugget of gold, which he hid, now in one place, now in another, and finally, was obliged to carry in his under-shirt pocket for weeks. When he reached home its sale made him immensely rich. I had a little curiosity in the matter, and obtaining the current price of gold, found, by a simple computation, that the nugget must have weighed _a hundred and ninety-four pounds_. A sizeable pocket that must have been!’ Albert Smith had his pronouns criticised in the following neat way by Thackeray. Turning over the leaves of a young lady's album, Thackeray came upon the following lines: Mont Blanc is the Monarch of Mountains-- They crowned him long ago; But who they got to put it on, Nobody seems to know.--ALBERT SMITH. And wrote underneath: I know that Albert wrote in a hurry: To criticise I scarce presume; But yet methinks that Lindley Murray, Instead of ‘who,’ had written ‘whom.’ W. M. THACKERAY. Not quite so good-naturedly did Chorley treat Patmore's _Angel in the House_, in his critical versicles: ‘The gentle reader we apprise, That this new Angel in the House, Contains a tale, not very wise, About a parson and a spouse. The author, gentle as a lamb, Has managèd his rhymes to fit; He haply fancies he has writ Another _In Memoriam_. How his intended gathered flowers, And took her tea, and after sung, Is told in style somewhat like ours, For delectation of the young.’ Then after giving ‘some little pictures’ in the poet's own language, the cruel critic went on--‘From ball to bed, from field to farm, The tale flows nicely purling on; With much conceit there is no harm, In the love-legend here begun. The rest will come some other day, If public sympathy allows; And this is all we have to say About the Angel in the House.’