peculiarly ferocious by being boiled. The government of the island,
therefore, never allows a stick of it to be exported without being
accompanied by a piston with which its cavity may at any time be
thoroughly swept out. These are commonly lost or stolen before the
macaroni arrives among us. It therefore always contains many of these
insects, which, however, generally die of old age in the shops, so that
accidents from this source are comparatively rare.

"The fruit of the bread-tree consists principally of hot rolls. The
buttered-muffin variety is supposed to be a hybrid with a cocoanut palm,
the cream found on the milk of the cocoanut exuding from the hybrid in
the shape of butter, just as the ripe fruit is splitting, so as to fit
it for the tea-table, where it is commonly served up with cold--"

--There,--I don't want to read any more of it. You see that many of
these statements are highly improbable.--No, I shall not mention the
paper.--No, neither of them wrote it, though it reminds me of the style
of these popular writers. I think the fellow that wrote it must have
been reading some of their stories, and got them mixed up with his
history and geography. I don't suppose _he_ lies; he sells it to the
editor, who knows how many squares off "Sumatra" is. The editor, who
sells it to the public--by the way, the papers have been very
civil--haven't they?--to the--the--what d'ye call it?--"Northern
Magazine,"--isn't it?--got up by some of these Come-outers, down East,
as an organ for their local peculiarities.

* * * * *

It is a very dangerous thing for a literary man to indulge his love for
the ridiculous. People laugh _with_ him just so long as he amuses them;