A nobleman resident at a castle in Italy was about to celebrate his
marriage feast. All the elements were propitious except the ocean, which
had been so boisterous as to deny the very necessary appendage of fish.
On the very morning of the feast, however, a poor fisherman made his
appearance, with a turbot so large, that it seemed to have been created
for the occasion. Joy pervaded the castle, and the fisherman was ushered
with his prize into the saloon, where the nobleman, in the presence of
his visitors, requested him to put what price he thought proper on the
fish, and it should be instantly paid him. One hundred lashes, said the
fisherman, on my bare back, is the price of my fish, and I will not bate
one strand of whip-cord on the bargain. The nobleman and his guests were
not a little astonished, but our chapman was resolute, and remonstrance
was in vain. At length the nobleman exclaimed, Well, well, the fellow is
a humourist, and the fish we must have, but lay on lightly, and let the
price be paid in our presence. After fifty lashes had been administered,
Hold, hold, exclaimed the fisherman, I have a partner in this business,
and it is fitting that he should receive his share. What, are there two
such mad-caps in the world? exclaimed the nobleman; name him, and he
shall be sent for instantly. You need not go far for him, said the
fisherman, you will find him at your gate, in the shape of your own
porter, who would not let me in until I promised that he should have the
half of whatever I received for my turbot. Oh, oh, said the nobleman,
bring him up instantly, he shall receive his stipulated moiety with the
strictest justice. This ceremony being finished, he discharged the
porter, and amply rewarded the fisherman.
---------------------
_Changes of Manners._--John Locke, the celebrated writer on the Human
Mind and on Government, mentions in his Journal, in the year 1679, the
following as the amusements of London to be seen by a stranger:--“At
Marebone and Putney he may see several persons of quality bowling two or
three times a week all the summer: wrestling, in Lincoln’s Inn Field
every evening all the summer; bear and bull baiting, and sometimes
prizes at the Bear-Garden; shooting in the long-bow and stob-ball, in
Tothill-fields.”
---------------------
_Animal Sagacity._--In the immense forests of North America, the
moose-deer is hunted by the Indians with such relentless perseverance,
that all the instincts of the quadruped are called forth for the
preservation of its existence. Tanner, a white man who lived thirty
years in the woods, thus describes the extraordinary extent of the
moose’s vigilance:--“In the most violent storm, when the wind, and the
thunder, and the falling timber, are making the loudest and most
incessant roar, if a man, either with his foot or his hand, breaks the
smallest dry limb in the forest, the moose will hear it; and though he
does not always run, he ceases eating, and rouses his attention to all
sounds. If in the course of an hour, or thereabouts, the man neither
moves nor makes the least noise, the animal may begin to feed again, but
does not forget what he has heard, and is for many hours more vigilant
than before.”
---------------------