I thrust my hands into the pockets of my dressing-gown, which, by the by, is far the handsomest piece of old brocade I have ever seen,---a large running pattern of gold hollyhocks, with silver stalks and leaves, upon a rich, deep, Pompadour-coloured ground,--and, walking slowly backwards and forwards in my room, I continued,--"There never was, there never can have been, so happy a fellow as myself! What on earth have I to wish for more? Maria adores me--I adore Maria. To be sure, she's detained at Brighton; but I hear from her regularly every morning by the post, and we are to be united for life in a fortnight. Who was ever so blest in his love? Then again John Fraser--my old schoolfellow! I don't believe there's anything in the world he would not do for me. I'm sure there's no living thing that he loves so much as myself, except, perhaps, his old uncle Simon, and his black mare." I had by this time returned to the fireplace, and, reseating myself, began to apostrophize my magnificent black Newfoundland, who, having partaken of my dinner, was following the advice and example of Abernethy, and sleeping on the rug, as it digested.--"And you, too, my old Neptune, aren't you the best and handsomest dog in the universe?" Neptune finding himself addressed, awoke leisurely from his slumbers, and fixed his eyes on mine with an affirmative expression. "Ay, to be sure you are; and a capital swimmer too!" Neptune raised his head from the rug, and beat the ground with his tail, first to the right hand, and then to the left. "And is he not a fine faithful fellow? And does he not love his master?" Neptune rubbed his head against my hand, and concluded the conversation, by again sinking into repose. "That dog's a philosopher," I said; "He never says a word more than is necessary:--then, again, not only blest in love and friendship, and my dog; but what luck it was to sell, and in these times too, that old, lumbering house of my father's, with its bleak, bare, hilly acres of chalk and stone, fat eighty thousand pounds, and to have the money paid down, on the very day the bargain was concluded. By the by, though, I had forgot:--I may as well write to Messrs. Drax and Drayton about that money, and order them to pay it immediately to Coutts's,--mighty honest people and all that: but faith, no solicitors should be trusted or tempted too far. It's a foolish way, at any time, to leave money in other people's hands--in anybody's hands--and I'll write about it at once." As I said, so I did. I wrote my commands Messrs. Drax and Drayton, to pay my eighty thousand pounds into Coutts's; and after desiring that my note might be forwarded to them, the first thing in the morning, I took my candle, and accompanied by Neptune, who always keeps watch by night at my chamber door, proceeded to bed, as the watchman was calling "past twelve o'clock," beneath my window. _Blackwood's Magazine_. * * * * * TO THE LADY BIRD.