large enough to swing a cat in;" adding (evidently with a reference to his habits when under the influence of passion), "which is very inconvenient!" Cats are useful

animals in a house. Is it doubtful, when Sir Anthony Absolute had stormed at the Captain, and the Captain in consequence had raved at Fag, and Fag in due succession had pumelled the footboy, that the footboy went forthwith and kicked the cat?

PEOPLE WHO "ALWAYS KEEP THEIR WORD.”

Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Ham. Oh! but she 'll keep her word.

will

THE people who always keep their word, if you take their word for the fact, are to be met with in immense varieties. To portray them is to paint Legion. It is also to unite opposites under one head; for those who always keep their word are not to be known sometimes from those who never do.

For example. There is no family in town in which the virtue of fidelity in the performance of a promise is so much cried up as in the Froth family; and whoever happens to be intimate with any of its members knows particularly well that there is not an atom of that virtue existing amongst them. Conscientious exactness is insisted upon by each, and not a word they say can be taken as worth more than the breath that utters it.

In one respect only have they been faithful; in the promise which all the younger ones gave to take after their elders. Likeness could hardly prevail more in a

family of peas. Old Mrs. Froth, full of her sons, always cries, "Nick's word is his bond!" or, "Ah! you may trust Joseph;" and the venerable head of the Froths, smiling in sweet paternal pride, exclaims, "If Julia promises, conclude it done."

Who would not believe in their belief when they join in one note, "What a blessing to have children around one in whom every body can place reliance!"

And the children themselves echo the conscious flattery. "We were brought up with such strictness in our family, and taught to hold promises so sacredly, that no doubt we are a little particular; we always keep our word."

These Froths utter their falsehoods so complacently to each other's faces, and appear so unmisgivingly in earnest, that not to confide, as they seem to do, is for a season impossible. It is easier to distrust one's senses than their assertions; such is the handsome, honestlooking front carried by the family faith.

"Joseph is honour itself," remarks Julia; "sensitive to a fault about the sanctity of his word. He would forfeit life in one instant, rather than fail to redeem any trifling pledge that he had given."

'Really," cries Joseph, once a day, "if there be an angel upon earth, a human creature all divine truth, purity, and consciousness, it is my sister, Julia Froth. To say that she never broke her word yet, is saying nothing; I venture to assert that she never will break it; she can't."

And yet it were wiser to walk on rotten ice than to put faith for an instant in that angel upon earth, or in that soul of honour, her panegyrist. Trust is not to be reposed in any member of the Froth family without risk of ruin; in truth, it is doubtful how far it would be right to take their word, even if they faithfully pro

mised to break it. Possibly, however, they might then be trustworthy, but then only. If the little squalling Froth in the cradle were to promise, with its first fragments of words, and instalments of innocent nursery phrases, to cry lustily for hours, with all the lungs it could command, would nobody credit the babe! The nuisance would be otherwise probable, but the promise would operate as a security against it. If the child, a few years afterwards, grown into the unruliest little rebel alive, were to threaten to tug off the table-cloth, soup, fish-sauce, and all, you might proceed to finish your dinner undismayed, for to believe a word of his would be ridiculous. Nobody believes the Froths from birth to burial.

It would be difficult to say what profit they find in pursuing such a course, and it is not easier to surmise the nature of the pleasure which they take in it. But doubtless it imposes upon them the necessity of standing by each other, and gratifies self-love by drawing largely for praise upon lips privileged to utter it while its own are sealed. Vanity, like murder, will sometimes speak miraculously enough, though it have no tongue. It sets all its family to puff it vehemently. The praise can neither be too frequent nor too fervent. Son puffs father, mother daughter, and sister brother; great-aunts and cousins alike administering and partaking the gale, if need be; nay, the fondest of grandmammas being called in upon occasion;-all evincing the ardour of that affection, so prevalent in families, which runs the great circle and is still at home.

Nick, perhaps, of all the family we have been adverting to, is foremost in coolness when breaking the word which it is the game of his life to vow he always keeps. Whether this coolness disarms or deceives people, may be doubted; but they rarely complain; continuing to

allow Nick Froth to make fools of them at all hours and

in his own way.

In whatever water you may happen to be, there he is upon the surface floating buoyantly within hail, and anxious to play the friend in any emergency. But just as you are sinking, he lets go your hand, and swims off in search of the life-buoy, promising to return with speed. He enters eagerly into an engagement to get you out of hot water, and when the element has had plenty of time to cool, there he is at his post, ready to redeem his promise.

Nick Froth is as noisy as the sea surf, and about as safe in his mode of handling those he serves. Escape his intervention you cannot. Whatever be the affair you have in hand, he insists upon taking it at once out of your direction, and managing it for you. Whatever you are doing, that he must undo. He pounces upon your best-considered plans, and with his broad fist and clumsy foot dashes the delicate machinery to atoms. Now he is to show you what he will invent and set up in its place.

You have thought long over the matter; deeply interested in it, your natural penetration has been quickened, your inventive faculty taxed to the utmost; you have arrived by the clearest means open to your comprehension at the shortest road to the accomplishment of your object; and you are, therefore, the more astonished, the more charmed, at the exquisite ease, and almost intuitive knowledge, with which Nick Froth, quietly walking in, and surveying your much-meditated scheme, pronounces it to be all "wrong," and demolishes in a breath what you had conceived with such fondness and constructed with such care. Wrong it must all be, since Nick Froth, whose interests are unconcerned, and whose opinion is unsolicited, can see so readily that it is a mistake.

True, he does not immediately point out the "right" in place of it, but enough for one day is the detection of error. The task of discovering the true way is reserved; that is his affair, that is to be left to him, he is to set about that the first opportunity. His promise is enough; everybody knows that he "always keeps his word." Nevertheless, poor truster in frothy promises, you will see and hear no more of Nick on that subject. He had only promised himself the pleasure of marring your plan and checking your progress, and he has kept his word.

One every-day incident will sufficiently describe that farce of life in which Nick Froth plays the hero. There are occasions when the manner and tone of a letter may affect all one's prospects and interests. Over such an eventful document had Nick's dear friend bent his aching brow from sunrise to noon, with slow, painful doubt, and frequent sense of failure, but terminating in conscious success. Each word had been weighed, and the distance between every two words had been measured. Circumspection had taken its last look on all sides; a thousand niceties peculiar to the case had been consecutively noticed; and objection, in its most querulous mood, could not have thrust a pin's point through that perfect composition.

Enter Froth; and Friendship (the fool), even before she had time to consult him, was caught in the clutch of his opinion, which always takes the form of a verdict. It was fortunate he arrived as he did! that letter would not do; it adopted the very tone that should be most avoided. But a missive, in some shape, must be despatched without delay. He would draw up the form of it on the spot; the exact thing that was wanted.

66

First," said Nick Froth, deliberately tearing the