Page:Once a Week Jul - Dec 1859.pdf/520

17, 1859.] hut. But in  an  hour  my  curiosity  overcame  my judgment,  and  I found  myself  tapping  for  admittance at  Munro’s. He opened  the  door,  stared  at me,  and  then  turned  his  head,  while  I entered; but we  neither  of  us  spoke. Bessie knelt  by  her mother, bathing  her  withered  hand  in  contrite tears, and  Munro  commenced  a desperate  rattling of knives  and  forks,  whilst  his  wife  looked  up with  a face  of  grateful  gladness. I could form  no words  befitting  so  tender  a scene,  so  took  up  the Bible and  read  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son.

They bore  it  with  firmness  until  I reached  the 23rd verse: “Bring  hither  the  fatted  calf,  and kill it; and  let  us  eat,  and  be  merry; for  this my son  was  dead  and  is  alive,”  &c.; when  the father burst  out:

“Us hadn’t  got  no  fatted  calf;  but  mother’s boiled her  best  bit  of  pork,  and  with  her  here  to eat  it,  it’s  a feast  fit  for  angels.”

Bessie needed  not  another  warning  that  her father’s roof  was  her  safest  shelter,  nor  did  she

again leave  it  until  a fine  young  husband  took her home  to  a snug  little  farm  in  the  interior. But this  husband  was  not  Joe  Sadlers; of  him  my suspicion  proved  correct; he  was  a villain,  and  at the  time  of  Bessie’s  marriage  he  was  fulfilling  a sentence  on  the  roads  for  the  robbery  at  the Black Bear. 2em

in the  Annuaire  de  l'Académie (article Cornelissen),  relates  in  the  following terms the  manner  in  which  the  word  “canard” became used  in  its  new  sense. To give  a sly  hit at the  ridiculous  pieces  of  intelligence  which  the journals were  in  the  habit  of  publishing  every  morning, Cornelissen  stated  that  an  interesting  experiment had  just  been  made,  calculated  to  prove  the extraordinary voracity  of  ducks. Twenty of  these animals had  been  placed  together; and  one  of them  having  been  killed  and  cut  up  in  the  smallest possible pieces,  feathers  and  all,  and  thrown  to the  other  nineteen,  was  most  gluttonously  gobbled up in  an  exceedingly  brief  space  of  time. Another was then  taken  from  the  nineteen,  and  being chopped small  like  its  predecessor,  was  served  up to  the  eighteen,  and  at  once  devoured  like  the other; and so  on  to  the  last,  who  was  thus  placed in the  position  of  having  eaten  his  nineteen  companions in  a wonderfully  short  time. All this, most  pleasantly  related,  obtained  a success  which the  writer  was  far  from  anticipating,  for  the  story ran  the  round  of  all  the  journals  of  Europe. It then became  forgotten  for  about  a score  of  years, when  it  came  back  from  America  with  amplifications which  it  did  not  boast  of  at  the  commencement, and  with  a regular  certificate  of  the  autopsy of  the  body  of  the  surviving  animal,  whose  œsophagus was  declared  to  have  been  seriously injured. Every one  laughed  at  the  history  of  the “Canard”  thus  brought  up  again,  but  the  word remained  in  its  novel  signification. 2em