"_C'est à vous à faire_"--said his Majesty cutting. His Grace bowed, dealt, and arose from the table _en presentant le Roi_. His Majesty looked chagrined. Had the drunkard not been Alexander, he would have been Diogenes; and the Duc assured his Majesty in taking leave "_que s'il n'etait pas De L'Omelette il n'aurait point d'objection d'etre le Diable_." THE ILIAD. Mr. H. N. Coleridge says there would be no difficulty in composing a complete epic poem with as much symmetry of parts as is seen in the Iliad, from the English ballads on Robin Hood. {152} RUSTIC COURTSHIP IN NEW ENGLAND. [_From the lips of an Octogenarian_.] Won by the charms Of goodness irresistible. _Thomson_. "You see, ma'am," said the old man, "my mother died when I was twelve years old. About that time old Mr. C---- came down, and set up for a great _marchant_. Well, his wife was sick, and she sent to ----, where she came from, for a widow-woman to come and take care of her. This widow-woman had three children. Her husband, had been a sea-faring man, and he was _wracked_ and lost down there at Halifax,--and left his wife with nothing at all, and these three children to take care of." "Well, my daddy, ma'am, fell in with her, some how or other, and married her. She was a nice woman--as good a mother as ever was,--and had great _larning_, and knew how to do every thing,--only she didn't know _nothing_ about country-work, you see. Well, her oldest daughter came down, (for my dad had agreed to take one of the children,) and she was a nice _gal_; and a while after the boy came down. Well, there was nothing said; we all worked along; and the daughter she got married--married Mr. H----, (you know his folks?--) he broke his neck afterwards, falling from his horse." "Well, a while after this tother daughter came down. Debby was dreadful plain!--I thought she was _dreadful plain!!_--but she was a nice _gal_--smart, working--and good to every body. You see, there were four young children of the second crop, and they had got ragged; and Debby spun, and wove, and clothed, and mended them up. Well, she went back,--but they couldn't live without her, and sent for her again, and so she came. She took care of every thing--saw to my things, and had them all in order,--and every thing comfortable for me in the winter, when I went in the woods,--but I thought nothing, no more than if she'd been my sister."