Full text: Tales and fairy stories

THE GALLOSHES OF HAPPINESS. 207 
(ry La 
ta hs EY 
a 
. 
3 ro. 
-. 
Ven 
- ul 
a 
. 
wr ai 
bbe wn 
Ch "3% 
| Sen ami 
for our souls have far greater capabilities than 1g 
generally supposed. Does it not shew an astonishing 
talent for dramatic composition in our dreams, where 
sach of our acquaintances speaks so perfectly in cha, 
racter, and so exactly in the voice belonging to him, 
that we should never be able to mimic it half so well 
in our waking hours? How well, too, our soul re- 
minds us of persons whom we have forgotten for years, 
when they suddenly start up to our recollection with 
the most vivid distinctness, even to their smallest cha- 
racteristics. After all, our souls’ capacity for thinking 
seems to place us in a somewhat ticklish position: it 
enables us to recall every sin and every wicked thought 
we may have indulged in; and then the question 
will arise, whether we should be in a condition of 
account for every guilty word that may have been 
whispered in our hearts or have risen to our lips. 
The watchman’s soul, accordingly, understood the 
language of the inhabitants of the moon very tolerably. 
They were disputing about our earth, and doubted 
whether it could be inhabited. The atmosphere, they 
contended, must be too thick for rational, moon-born 
beings to live in it. They considered that the moon 
alone was inhabited, and was the real earth, where 
lived the ancient inhabitants of the world. =~ 
They likewise talked politics—but we will descend 
to East-street, and see what happened to the watch- 
man’s hody. 
It lay lifeless on the steps. His star-tipped mace had 
fallen from his hand, and his eyes were turned upwards 
to the moon, where his honest soul was rambling. 
“ What is o'clock, watchman?” asked a passer-by. 
But no answer did the watchman return. The man 
then filliped his nose, which made him lose his balance. 
There lay the body, sprawling at full length : the man 
was dead. All his comrades were very much fright- 
ened—dead he was, and dead he remained. Notice 
Was given of the event; it was talked over; and at 
dawn the body was removed to the hospital.
	        
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