“Capon!” echoed the ghost of a servant; “the----” “Has not the rascal sent it?” cried the master. “Rascal!” repeated the man, apparently terrified. “I knew he would not,” exclaimed my patron, with an air of exultation, for which I saw no cause. “Well, well, never mind, put down the ham and the wine; with those and the rice, I dare say, young gentleman, you will be able to make it out. I ought to apologise, but in fact it is all your own fault that there is not more; if I had fallen in with you earlier, we should have had a better dinner.” I confess I was surprised, disappointed, and amused; but as matters stood, there was no use in complaining, and accordingly we fell to, neither of us wanting the best of all sauces--appetite. I soon perceived that my promised patron had baited his trap with a fowl to catch a fool; but as we ate and drank, all care vanished, and, rogue as I suspected him to be, my long-tailed friend was a clever witty fellow, and, besides telling me a number of anecdotes, gave me some very good advice; amongst other things to be avoided, he cautioned me against numbers of people who in Venice lived only by duping the unwary. I thought this counsel came very ill _from him_. “Above all,” said he, “keep up your spirits, and recollect the Venetian proverb, ‘A hundred years of melancholy will not pay one farthing of debt.’”--_Reminiscences of Michael Kelly._ * * * * * Poets often compare life to the sea; and the truth is, that, however bright the surface may be, they are both of them, whenever analysis is used, _salt water_. APOLOGUES AND FABLES, IN PROSE AND VERSE, FROM THE GERMAN AND OTHER LANGUAGES. (_Translated for the Irish Penny Journal._) No. III.--THE STORY OF THE OLD WOLF. I.