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Merryman, in fact, related his dream to his party the next morning. At first, they affected to laugh heartily at it: but the more they considered it, the more deeply it impressed them. They endeavoured to efface it, but in vain.

At length one of them, half in jest and half otherwise, observed, that it would be showing a disrespect to the memory of their departed leader, not to keep the appointment of his shade, and proposed that they should all assemble, and await the event, till past the midnight hour; when they should be confirmed what sort of a dreamer their friend Merryman whether he were best, sleeping or waking. As the curiosity of all the rest was on tiptoe, the motion was agreed to, nemine dis sentiente.

was;

CHAPTER XII.

THE GHOST OF CHARLEY BRUSH.

K THE public, particularly those of them who may be troubled with weak nerves, are most respectfully informed, that our ghost is not one of the terrific spectres of the present day, manufactured wholesale by M-k L-s, and kept prisoners in a goose-quill, (as the Magician in the Devil upon Two Sticks, kept Asmodeus and a dozen more hapless devils, bottled up,) to be let loose upon the public at his, or his publisher's will and pleasure. No,-our's is a spirit as gentle as the body which it once animated; we wish we could add, and with truth, that it had lost none of its wit; but our

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People either may or may not believe in ghosts, apparitions, or hobgoblins; - it is al! one to us. Some may think that the spirits of departed friends are permitted to appear, and forewarn them of approaching good or evil; others may assert that Providence has no occasion for such kind of agents, and that he gives us a secret intimation of any such events. But whether ghosts be useful or not to Providence, we are certain that they are very beneficial to Romance-writers, like ourselves, and very pleasing to Romance-readers, like you, my dear Ma'am, Miss, or Sir. A book will scarcely sell now without a ghost in it, even if there should be an honorary addendum of half the capitals in the Alphabet, to the real or supposed author's name.-"Have you read such a book, Ma'am?"-"No; -is there a ghost in it?"-"Oh, yes, a charming one!"—" Then I'll send for it this evening; to-morrow is Sunday, and I shall have nothing else to do but to read it."

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Aware of this public prepossession in favour of embodied air, we have put ourselves, or rather our publisher, who is a liberal sort of a little

man for one of his trade, to the expense of a most elegant ghost, in the engraving on the Frontispiece. The purchaser will therefore find food for both the eye and the mind; — that is, if he read with the same good intention with which we have written.

THE company were assembled round a table, as large in circumference as the famous one of good King Arthur, groaning first under an excellent supper, and now supporting an enormous load of bottles, decanters, jugs, mugs, goblets, glasses, and bowls, which were not placed there for no purpose. The servants were ordered to withdraw, and, on no account whatever, to interrupt them, as they were going upon some important business. The hand of the dial, against the wall, marked a quarter past eleven on the plate, and it was proposed and agreed to by all, in order to pass away the tedium of the intervening hour, that the song should go once round in turn. The petty Premier, who sat in the chair as president, opened the ball with

"Though I am but a very little lad,
Yet if wiser heads cannot be had;
For want of a better I may do,
A ministry to head: - cockadoodledoo!
Tho' I seem little, yet I'm tough

And made of ministerial stuff;

Ways and Means I'll knock about; for that's my joy, Next to skipping about like a cap'ring boy !"

This parodial jeu d'esprit raised the glow of the company. The vice-president, Lord Bowquick, who was armed with a copy of the Emancipation-bill, instead of the hammer used on these occasions to call to order, followed with "The Vicar and Moses." Howard gave "The Norfolk Farmer," Merryman," The man that is drunk, is devoid of all care." Without specifying any more, suffice it to say, that every one sang his favourite song; and when the whole had finished, on consulting the dial again, they saw that it wanted ten minutes of the midnight hour.

Being by this time pretty well heated with the bumper-toasts, which preceded and followed every song; one of the company proposed, that they should go through the Incantation of

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