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ROMANCE AND REALITY.
101

shavings; and a china shepherd and shepherdess, clothed in "a green and yellow melancholy," were the penates of the mantel-piece. How stimulating to be thrown on one's own resources!—unfortunately, they are like

"Spirits from the vasty deep.
But will they come when you do call to them?"

No resource but that of swearing came to Edward's help; and he paced the little room, most unpatriotically consigning the climate of his native land, the races, the horses, the inn, and himself, to the devil. At last he went in search of the landlord, whom he found standing dismally at the door, apparently engaged in counting the rain drops.

"Are you sure no horses are to be procured?—how unlucky!"

"All my luck, sir," said the disconsolate looking master of the Spread Eagle; "it is just like me,—my best horses knocked up at the races,—they might have been as lame as they pleased next week; but I am so unlucky—I hav'n't fifty pounds in the world; but if I had ten in the Bank of England, there would be a national bankruptcy, on purpose that I might lose it; and if I were to turn undertaker,