porcelain men, under the maxim that objects not appearing and not existing are governed by the same logical construction.” Humour had a splendid field in coaching, and the literature of the road is gemmed with twice a hundred good stories and mirth-provoking scenes. Few things seem to have been more productive of funny stories than the undue tendency to fatness on the part of a passenger. There is, for example, the tale of the stupid servant who, having to book two seats inside a coach for his master, a man of prodigious bulk, to whom one seat would be useless, returned from the booking-office with the news that he had secured the only two places to be had--one inside and one out. This bears comparison with that other story of the stout man’s revenge. He, too, was accustomed to book two seats. On one occasion this amiable eccentricity of his was observed overnight by two waggish fellows who thought they would play a trick on the fat man. They accordingly booked seats also, and took care to be seated in them before the man of much avoirdupois came. They sat facing one another, one back and the other in front, so that he had indeed two seats, but not, as they necessarily should have been, together. He asked them very politely to change their positions, but they refused, although he explained that he had booked two seats, and his reason for doing so. There the seats were, they said. But the outraged man of flesh determined to be revenged, and, looking round at the next stage where the coach stopped, spied a chimney-sweep, he beckoned. “Chimley, yer honour?” queried Chummy. “No: come here. Have you any objection to a ride this morning? I’ll pay you for a day’s work, and your fare back again.” “All right, yer honour; I’ll just run home and clean myself.” “No, no! come as you are, and when in the coach give yourself a good shake every now and then, to make the soot fly.” They got in, Chummy acting his part very well, and greatly to the annoyance and discomfort of the wags, who, however, said nothing. But when the coach stopped at the next change, and for breakfast, they asked the man who had been their butt, and was now their tormentor, how far he was going to take the sweep, as he was not a very desirable companion. He replied: “I took two seats so that, although corpulent, I should annoy no one. You prevented me occupying them, therefore I filled the remaining seat with Chummy, and he goes as far as the end of my journey. But I will dismiss him if you will agree to what I propose. When I engaged him, I agreed to pay him for his time, and to pay his fare home, with all other expenses incurred. He is now at breakfast. If you agree to pay him, he goes no farther; if not, he proceeds.” Having listened to this ultimatum, and being completely discomfited, they accepted these terms, and the sweep was dismissed.