FAIR PLAY.
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A nobleman resident at a castle in Italy was about to celebrate his marriage feast. All the elements were propitious except the ocean, which had been so boisterous as to deny the very necessary appendage of fish. On the very morning of the feast, however, a poor fisherman made his appearance, with a turbot so large, that it seemed to have been created for the occasion. Joy pervaded the castle, and the fisherman was ushered with his prize into the saloon, where the nobleman, in the presence of his visitors, requested him to put what price he thought proper on the fish, and it should be instantly paid him. One hundred lashes, said the fisherman, on my bare back, is the price of my fish, and I will not bate one strand of whip-cord on the bargain. The nobleman and his guests were not a little astonished, but our chapman was resolute, and remonstrance was in vain. At length the nobleman exclaimed, Well, well, the fellow is a humourist, and the fish we must have, but lay on lightly, and let the price be paid in our presence. After fifty lashes had been administered, Hold, hold, exclaimed the fisherman, I have a partner in this business, and it is fitting that he should receive his share. What, are there two such mad-caps in the world? exclaimed the nobleman; name him, and he shall be sent for instantly. You need not go far for him, said the fisherman, you will find him at your gate, in the shape of your own porter, who would not let me in until I promised that he should have the half of whatever I received for my turbot. Oh, oh, said the nobleman, bring him up instantly, he shall receive his stipulated moiety with the strictest justice. This ceremony being finished, he discharged the porter, and amply rewarded the fisherman.
Changes of Manners.—John Locke, the celebrated writer on the Human Mind and on Government, mentions in his Journal, in the year 1679, the following as the amusements of London to be seen by a stranger:—“At Marebone and Putney he may see several persons of quality bowling two or three times a week all the summer: wrestling, in Lincoln’s Inn Field every evening all the summer; bear and bull baiting, and sometimes prizes at the Bear-Garden; shooting in the long-bow and stob-ball, in Tothill-fields.”
Animal Sagacity.—In the immense forests of North America, the moose-deer is hunted by the Indians with such relentless perseverance, that all the instincts of the quadruped are called forth for the preservation of its existence. Tanner, a white man who lived thirty years in the woods, thus describes the extraordinary extent of the moose’s vigilance:—“In the most violent storm, when the wind, and the thunder, and the falling timber, are making the loudest and most incessant roar, if a man, either with his foot or his hand, breaks the smallest dry limb in the forest, the moose will hear it; and though he does not always run, he ceases eating, and rouses his attention to all sounds. If in the course of an hour, or thereabouts, the man neither moves nor makes the least noise, the animal may begin to feed again, but does not forget what he has heard, and is for many hours more vigilant than before.”
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