portunities to speak of, and it don't stand to reason that a dog could make such a fight as he could under them circumstances, if he hadn't no talent. It always makes me feel sorry when I think of that last fight of his'n, and the way it turned out.

Well, thish-yer Smiley had rat-tarriers, and chicken cocks, and tom-cats, and all them kind of things, till you couldn't rest, and you couldn't fetch nothing for him to bet on but he'd match you. He ketched a frog one day, and took him home, and said he calk'lated to edercate him; and so he never done nothing for three months but set in his back yard and learn that frog to jump. And you bet you he did learn him, too. He'd give him a little punch behind, and the next minute you'd see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut-see him turn one summerset, or maybe a couple, if he got a good start, and come down flat-footed and all right, like a cat. He got him up so in the matter of catching flies, and kept him in practice so constant, that he'd nail a fly every time as far as he could see him. Smiley said all a frog wanted was education, and he could do almost anything-and I believe him. Why, I've seen him set Dan'l Webster down here on this floor -Dan'l Webster was the name of the frog-and sing out, "Flies, Dan'l, flies!" and quicker'n you could wink, he'd spring straight up, and snake a fly off'n the counter there, and flop down on the floor again as solid as a dab of mud, and fall to scratching the side of his head with his hind foot as indifferent as if he hadn't no idea he'd been doin' any more'n any frog might do. You never see a frog so modest and straightfor'ard as he was, for all he was so gifted. And when it came to fair and square jumping on a dead level, he could get over more ground at one straddle than any animal of his breed you ever see. Jumping on a dead level was his strong suit, you understand; and when it come to that, Smiley would ante up money on him as long as he had a red, Smiley was monstrous proud of his frog, and well he might be, for fellers that had travelled and been evey

wheres, all said he laid over any frog that ever they

see.

Well, Smiley kept the beast in a little lattice box, and he used to fetch him down town sometimes and

lay for a bet. One day a feller-a stranger in the camp, he was-come across him with his box, and says: "What might it be that you've got in the box?"

And Smiley says, sorter indifferent like, "It might be a parrot, or it might be a canary, maybe, but it an't-it's only just a frog."

And the feller took it, and looked at it careful, and turned it round this way and that, and says, "H'm— so 'tis. Well, what's he good for?"

"Well," Smiley says, easy and careless, "he's good enough for one thing, I should judge-he can outjump any frog in Calaveras county."

The feller took the box again, and took another long, particular look, and give it back to Smiley, and says, very deliberate, "Well, I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog.'

66

Maybe you don't," Smiley says. 'Maybe you understand frogs, and maybe you don't understand 'em; maybe you've had experience, and maybe you an't only a amature, as it were. Anyways, I've got my opinion, and I'll risk forty dollars that he can outjump any frog in Calaveras county."

And the feller studied a minute, and then says, kinder sad like, "Well, I'm only a stranger here, and I an't got no frog; but if I had a frog I'd bet you."

And then Smiley says, "That's all right-that's all right-if you'll hold my box a minute, I'll go and get you a frog." And so the feller took the box, and put up his forty dollars along with Smiley's and set down to wait.

So he set there a good while thinking and thinking to hisself, and then he got the frog out and prized his mouth open, and took a teaspoon and filled him full of quail shot-filled him pretty near up to his chin-and set him on the floor. Smiley he went to the swamp,

and slopped around in the mud for a long time, and finally he ketched a frog, and fetched him in, and give him to this feller, and says:

"Now, if you're ready, set him alongside of Dan'l, with his fore-paws just even with Dan'l, and I'll give the word." Then he says, "One-two-three-jump!" and him and the feller touched up the frogs from be hind, and the new frog hopped off, but Dan'l gave a heave, and hysted up his shoulders-so-like a Frenchman, but it wan't no usee-he couldn't budge; he was planted as solid as an anvil, and he couldn't no more stir than if he was anchored out. Smiley was a good deal surprised, and he was disgusted too, but he didn't have no idea what the matter was, of course.

The feller took the money and started away; and when he was going out at the door, he sorter jerked his thumb over his shoulder-this way-at Dan'l, and says again very deliberate, "Well, I don't see no p'ints about that frog that's any better'n any other frog."

Smiley he stood scratching his head and looking down at Dan'l a long time, and at last he says, "I do wonder what in the nation that frog throw'd off for-I wonder if there an't something the matter with him—he 'pears to look mighty baggy, somehow." And he ketch'd Dan'l by the nap of the neck, and lifted him up and says, 'Why, blame my cats, if he don't weigh five pounds!" and turned him upside down, and he threw up a double handful of shot; and then he see how it was, and he was the maddest man. He set the frog down and took out after that feller, but he never ketched him.

A TEMPLE TO FRIENDSHIP.

THOMAS MOORE.

"A TEMPLE to Friendship," said Laura, enchanted, "I'll build in this garden,-the thought is divine." Her temple was built, and she now only wanted An image of Friendship to place on the shrine.

She flew to a sculptor, who set down before her
A Friendship, the fairest his art could invent;
But so cold and so dull, that the youthful adorer
Saw plainly this was not the idol she meant.

:

"O never," she cried, "could I think of enshrining An image whose looks are so joyless and dim :But yon little god, upon roses reclining,

We'll make, if you please, sir, a Friendship of him." So the bargain was struck: with the little god laden She joyfully flew to her shrine in the grove:

"Farewell," said the sculptor, "you're not the first maiden

Who came but for Friendship and took away Love."

NOSE AND EYES.

WILLIAM Cowper.

BETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

So the Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning:
While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,

So famed for his talent in nicely discerning.

"In behalf of the Nose, it will quickly appear,
And your lordship," said Tongue, "will undoubtedly
find

That the Nose has had spectacles always in wear,
Which amounts to possession, time out of mind.

Then holding the spectacles up to the court-
"Your lordship observes they are made with a
straddle,

As wide as the ridge of the nose is; in short,
Designed to sit close to it, just like a saddle.

แ

"Again, would your lordship a moment suppose— 'Tis a case that has happened, and may be again— That the visage or countenance had not a nose,

Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then? "On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, With a reasoning the court will never condemn, That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose, And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.” Then shifting his side, as the lawyer knows how, He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes; But what were his arguments few people know, For the world did not think they were equally wise. So his lordship decreed, with grave solemn tone, Decisive and clear, without one if or but— That whenever the Nose put his spectacles on, By daylight or candle-light-Eyes should be shut!

GIL BLAS'S ADVENTURES AT PENNAFLOR.
ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE.

I ARRIVED in safety at Pennaflor; and, halting at the
gate of an inn that made a tolerable appearance, I had
no sooner alighted than the landlord came out and
received me with great civility; he untied my port-
manteau with his own hands, and, throwing it on his
shoulders, conducted me into a room, while one of his
servants led my mule into the stable. This innkeeper,
the greatest talker of the Asturias, and as ready to
relate his own affairs, without being asked, as to pry
into those of another, told me that his name was Andrew
Corcuelo; that he had served many years in the army,
in quality of a sergeant, and had quitted the service
fifteen months ago to marry a damsel of Castropol, who,
though she was a little swarthy, knew very well how to
turn the
penny.

He said a thousand other things which I could have