of a change in the conversation, reminded Augustus of his promise to communicate his history; and the philosophical Whig, nothing loth to speak of himself, cleared his throat, and began.
HISTORY OF AUGUSTUS TOMLINSON.
"Never mind who was my father, nor what was my native place! My first ancestor was Tommy Linn—(his heir became Tom Linn's son:)—you have heard the ballad made in his praise—
'Tommy Linn is a Scotchman born,
His head is bald, and his beard is shorn;
He had a cap made of a hare skin,—
An elder man is Tommy Linn!' &c.[1]
"There was a sort of prophecy respecting my ancestor's descendants darkly insinuated in the concluding stanza of this ballad:
' Tommy Linn, and his wife, and his wife's mother.
They all fell into the fire together;
They that lay undermost got a hot skin;—
'We are not enough!' said Tommy Linn.'[2]