"Did I understand you, Madam, to say two Bruges?"

66 Certainly, Sir, and as like each other as the two Dromios. It seems to be characteristic of the people, as well as the carillons, which, by the way, I observed at both the Ghents."

"Both the Ghents, Madam?"

"It is a fact, I assure you, Sir. These unimaginative people have really two Ghents. I do not pretend to much antiquarian or architectural knowledge, but the two cities appeared to me to have been built about the same age, and on nearly the same style, as if in absurd rivalry of each other."

Chak, chak, chakkery-churr, &c.&c. "The woman's mad," I said to myself. Who ever heard of two Ghents-and who the devil could ever find a second Bruges? But my meditations were here interrupted by the caperings of some horses at plough, which had evidently taken fright, and had probably run away, though they seemed as usual, in spite of a violent show of galloping, to remain in the original spot.

"And if anything," bawled the lady, so as to make herself heard even above the murmur of the railway, "I like the second Bruges best. It looked quieter and quainter, and more outlandish, than the other; and the tower, if anything, was rather higher.”

"Excuse me, Madam, but it really appears to me that you must have taken the wrong train, and returned, as our capital criminals are sentenced, to the place from whence you came."

"The wrong train!" shouted the lady, rather indignantly. "O Sir, that's impossible! Nobody can be so careful as I am,-for I know neither French nor Flemish, and accordingly am personally on my guard. Instead of sauntering about every place I arrive at, like other travellers, I make it a rule to remain invariably on the spot (the station I believe it is called), ready to set out with the very next train."

"But, my dear Madam, the next train

If not the very

"But, my dear Sir-excuse me. next train, you can be at no loss to know when to start. The railway people take care of that. For

instance, here, at the last Bruges, you pay for your ticket to Ostend-mark me, Sir, to Ostend-and you are retained in a sitting-room, the back door of which is kept locked. When that door is opened you are admitted into the station-yard—and you find a train ready to start—your own train of course. You get in and- -"

A loud indescribable screech, called whistling, intended to give warning of our approach, here interrupted the argument. We were going at a pace which threatened to soon bring us to our destination. In fact, I had hardly made up my mind as to the inconveniences of certain females travelling alone— the awkwardness of not knowing the current language of the country, and the rawness of the arrangements on a new line, when we arrived at the station a few hundred yards from Ostend. The spires, the lighthouse, and the masts of the shipping, were so distinctly visible that I could not anticipate any blunder. I supposed, therefore, that the lady might be safely left to her own circumspection, and was doubly occupied in the collection of my luggage, and the conversation of

some friends who had awaited my arrival,-when suddenly I heard the voice of my quondam fellow traveller-"O Lord! I shall be too late!" and before I could recover from my astonishment, I saw her precipitately jump into a char-à-banc, and whirl off with the inland train on a third visit to the quaint, ancient, and picturesque city of Bruges !

ALI BEN NOUS.

A FABLE.

MEN and monkeys are equally prone to imitation; only that the Brutes prefer to ape mankind, whereas the human animals delight in copying each other. Nor do they always choose the best models, and even when they do so, they imitate them so abominably that the worst originals would be infinitely better. A pest on all such serviles! and may they meet with the fate of the followers of Ali Ben Nous!—a personage not mentioned by Mr. Lane in his splendid edition of the "Arabian Nights,” and of which by the way he has made One Thousand and Two, by the addition of one Knight as the publisher.

Ali Ben Nous, according to the Eastern chronicle,