THE HERMIT OF BELLYFULLE BEGINS HIS ACCOUNT OF THE LAND OF TURVEYTOP.

WITH growing reverence for the Sage, we attended the Hermit of Bellyfulle back to his cell. "In half an hour," said he, graciously smiling, "it will be dinner time. Half an hour," he repeated with musical emphasis, as he passed into his chamber. Having profitably employed the time with cold water, we then, refreshed yet hungry, sought our host. The Hermit awaited us. He had put aside his cloak of the morning, and was again wrapped in his old damask gown. He perceived that we observed the change. "My custom, sir," he said; "I never yet could dine in full dress. The digestive organs, sir, abominate close buttoning; and do their work sulkily, grumblingly. No, sir; a man in full a man in full dress may chew and swallow, but he never dines. The stomach cannot honestly perform its functions in state." We smiled: whereupon the Hermit with a grave, sly look, asked-"Will you answer me this question?" We bowed affirmaVOL. II.

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tively. "Do you think it in the power of mortal man to give a fair, wise, learned judgment upon any dish or sauce soever, the said man being, at the time of tasting, in tight boots? Sir, it is impossible. The judicial organ is too delicate, too exquisitely nerved, to vindicate its sweet prerogative, unless the whole man, morally and bodily, be in a state of deep repose. And, therefore, can there be a greater wrong committed upon the cook, than the common injury of dining to music? It is abominable. Once-I well remember it-I chewed to the clangor, and crash, and thunder of a military band. Well, sir, the dinner was excellent-admirable as a dinner; but I have no more judgment than a beast, if I had any other taste in my mouth save the brass of the trumpets, and the tough parchment of the drum-heads. Silence, profound and solemn, is due to the first hour of dining. One minute before that time the finest jest is but a presumptuous impertinence. In my encyclopædia of the kitchen I have treated of these things-philosophically and at large. For the present

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