"It now became _my_ turn to take the stand; and upon _me_ rested the hopes of my family. I can truly say, that it was not so much fear that made my hand tremble and my pistol to waver: it was the deep sense of _responsibility_ that rested upon me. We took our places--a simultaneous discharge was a moment after heard--and, and----" Here the narrator put his handkerchief to his face, and seemed to shake with irrepressible agitation. "Well, sir," exclaimed our young Munchausen who had listened to the narrative with almost breathless attention, "well, sir--well?--what was the result? How did it end?" "_I was shot dead the first fire!_" replied the old gentleman; "the property passed into the hands of my uncle and his family; and my surviving brother has been poor as a rat ever since!" An uproarious laugh, that fairly shook the coach, told "Braggadocio" that he had been slightly "taken in and done for" after a manner entirely his own. This anecdote will not be lost upon bored listeners to those who shoot with the long bow, or in other words, stretch a fact until they have made it as long as they want it. We have somewhere heard of a man at a dinner-party who was determined not to be outdone in this but too common species of archery. Some one present had been engaged in attracting the attention of the company to an account of a pike that he had caught the day before that weighed nineteen pounds! "Pooh!" exclaimed a gentleman sitting near him, "that is nothing to the one _I_ caught last week, which weighed twenty-six pounds." "Confound it!" whispered the first fisherman to his neighbor, "I wish I could catch my pike again; I'd add ten pounds to him directly!" * * * * * There is something more than mere good measures in the following lines. There is a satire upon Love and Mammon, when the deep affections of the heart reach a greater depth in the pocket: "Dear friend, I'm glad to meet you here, But scarce know what to say, For such an angel I have seen At your mamma's to-day! Of fairer form than Venus, when She trod the Grecian shore; And then such splendid hair and eyes I never saw before. "Her air and manners were divine, Above all petty arts; Oh, surely she was formed to reign The peerless Queen of Hearts. Dear Bob, we have been college friends, And friendship's still the same; Now only tell me who she is-- Oblige me with her name. "'Fine hair and eyes!'--'the Queen of Hearts!' Who can she be?--oh, yes! I know her now--why, Frederick, that's My sister's governess!' Your sister's governess!!--Indeed I _thought_ it might be so; She looks genteel--but still there is About her something low!" * * * * *