Tail Blue, and it is no wonder he feels a contempt for your
inferior artists."

"'As for the dancing,'" continued the editor of the Active Inquirer, "'it
is my decided impression that nothing can be worse. The movement was more
suited to a funeral than the ball-room, and I affirm, without fear of
contradiction, that there is not an assembly in all America in which a
_cotillion_ would not be danced in one-half the time that one was danced
in the _bally_ to-night.'"

"Dans le quoi?"

"I believe I have not given the real Parisian pronunciation to this word,
which the French call bal-_lay_", continued the reader, with
great candour.

"Belay, or make all fast, as we say on ship-board. Mr. Dodge, as master,
of this vessel, I beg to return you the united, or as Saunders would say,
the condensed thanks of the passengers, for this information; and next
Saturday we look for a renewal of the pleasure. The ladies are getting to
be sleepy, I perceive, and as Mr. Monday _never_ drinks and the other
gentlemen have finished their punch, we may as well retire, to get ready
for a hard day's work to-morrow."

Captain Truck made this proposal, because he saw that one or two of the
party were _plenum punch_, and that Eve and her companion were becoming
aware of the propriety of retiring. It was also true that he foresaw the
necessity of rest, in order to be ready for the exertions of the morning.

After the party had broken up, which it did very contrary to the wishes of