If the lady andher visitors can laugh at this, surely you can. It is a greatfailing not to be able to appreciate what is amusing. Now let us bemen."
  "Do you remember," said the canary, "the pretty maidens who usedto dance in the tents that were spread out beneath the sweet blossoms?Do you remember the delicious fruit and the cooling juice from thewild herbs?"
  "Oh, yes," said the parrot; "but here I am much better off. I amwell fed, and treated politely. I know that I have a clever head;and what more do I want? Let us be men now. You have a soul forpoetry. I have deep knowledge and wit. You have genius, but nodiscretion. You raise your naturally high notes so much, that youget covered over. They never serve me so. Oh, no; I cost themsomething more than you. I keep them in order with my beak, andfling my wit about me. Now let us be men.
  "O my warm, blooming fatherland," sang the canary bird, "I willsing of thy dark-green trees and thy quiet streams, where thebending branches kiss the clear, smooth water. I will sing of thejoy of my brothers and sisters, as their shining plumage flits amongthe dark leaves of the plants which grow wild by the springs."
  "Do leave off those dismal strains," said the parrot; "singsomething to make us laugh; laughter is the sign of the highestorder of intellect. Can a dog or a horse laugh? No, they can cry;but to man alone is the power of laughter given. Ha! ha! ha!"laughed Polly, and repeated his witty saying, "Now let us be men."
  "You little gray Danish bird," said the canary, "you also havebecome a prisoner. It is certainly cold in your forests, but stillthere is liberty there. Fly out! they have forgotten to close thecage, and the window is open at the top. Fly, fly!"
  Instinctively, the clerk obeyed, and left the cage; at the samemoment the half-opened door leading into the next room creaked onits hinges, and, stealthily, with green fiery eyes, the cat crept inand chased the lark round the room. The canary-bird fluttered in hiscage, and the parrot flapped his wings and cried, "Let us be men;" thepoor clerk, in the most deadly terror, flew through the window, overthe houses, and through the streets, till at length he was obligedto seek a resting-place. A house opposite to him had a look of home. Awindow stood open; he flew in, and perched upon the table. It washis own room. "Let us be men now," said he, involuntarily imitatingthe parrot; and at the same moment he became a clerk again, onlythat he was sitting on the table. "Heaven preserve us!" said he;"How did I get up here and fall asleep in this way? It was an uneasydream too that I had. The whole affair appears most absurd.
  THE BEST THING THE GOLOSHES DID
  Early on the following morning, while the clerk was still inbed, his neighbor, a young divinity student, who lodged on the samestorey, knocked at his door, and then walked in. "Lend me yourgoloshes," said he; "it is so wet in the garden, but the sun isshining brightly. I should like to go out there and smoke my pipe." Heput on the goloshes, and was soon in the garden, which containedonly one plum-tree and one apple-tree; yet, in a town, even a smallgarden like this is a great advantage.
  The student wandered up and down the path; it was just sixo'clock, and he could hear the sound of the post-horn in the street."Oh, to travel, to travel!" cried he; "there is no greater happinessin the world: it is the height of my ambition. This restless feelingwould be stilled, if I could take a journey far away from thiscountry. I should like to see beautiful Switzerland, to travel throughItaly, and,"- It was well for him that the goloshes acted immediately,otherwise he might have been carried too far for himself as well asfor us. In a moment he found himself in Switzerland, closely packedwith eight others in the diligence. His head ached, his back wasstiff, and the blood had ceased to circulate, so that his feet wereswelled and pinched by his boots. He wavered in a condition betweensleeping and waking. In his right-hand pocket he had a letter ofcredit; in his left-hand pocket was his passport; and a few louisd'ors were sewn into a little leather bag which he carried in hisbreast-pocket. Whenever he dozed, he dreamed that he had lost one oranother of these possessions; then he would awake with a start, andthe first movements of his hand formed a triangle from hisright-hand pocket to his breast, and from his breast to hisleft-hand pocket, to feel whether they were all safe. Umbrellas,sticks, and hats swung in the net before him, and almost obstructedthe prospect, which was really very imposing; and as he glanced at it,his memory recalled the words of one poet at least, who has sung ofSwitzerland, and whose poems have not yet been printed:-
  "How lovely to my wondering eyes
  Mont Blanc's fair summits gently rise;
  'Tis sweet to breathe the mountain air,-
  If you have gold enough to spare."Grand, dark, and gloomy appeared the landscape around him. Thepine-forests looked like little groups of moss on high rocks, whosesummits were lost in clouds of mist. Presently it began to snow, andthe wind blew keen and cold. "Ah," he sighed, "if I were only on theother side of the Alps now, it would be summer, and I should be ableto get money on my letter of credit. The anxiety I feel on this matterprevents me from enjoying myself in Switzerland. Oh, I wish I was onthe other side of the Alps."
  And there, in a moment, he found himself, far away in the midst ofItaly, between Florence and Rome, where the lake Thrasymeneglittered in the evening sunlight like a sheet of molten goldbetween the dark blue mountains. There, where Hannibal defeatedFlaminius, the grape vines clung to each other with the friendly graspof their green tendril fingers; while, by the wayside, lovelyhalf-naked children were watching a herd of coal-black swine under theblossoms of fragrant laurel. Could we rightly describe thispicturesque scene, our readers would exclaim, "Delightful Italy!"