pounds sins you ben mared have  Ped for you
20 Pounds.

The form in which the next letter is
written conveys the idea, at the first glance,
of its being a poetical effusion. It is, however,
as plain prose as ever was written, and it is
to the purpose. There is something of
iteration in the style, but the use of it is
effective:

October 17 Sor I Spencer Have send
My man this marnen with the sum of £8 0s. 0d.
And ei will com over an Pay the Balous
At Gret morket nex on Satred nast
I was out that I had no one two send
Else I shud send yall the money and yoll Pleas
Two send thot Bead that hear that I order
For by your man las weak you Pleas send the
Day as quick as possible.
                          I remain yours
                                            J S

For a full, true, and particular account of
how a whole family are getting on J. G.'s
letter, which follows, comes near the mark:

DEAR UNCLE ANT I send these few lines hopeing
to find you in good health as it leaves us at press ant
thank god for it your sister and Brothers are all very
well Granmother have not been well but she is very
well now and Granfather and Granmother gives their
Kind [love] to you both we believe your Brother
John is going to be married for they are both going to
leave there places at May and father is makeing a new
clockcase for him  again May and uncle thomas's wife
was never married before and Sprags wife is dead and
molly wat kins husband is dead and you forgot to send
me word whether you did receive the apples and note
and my mother thinks to put me to be a watchmaker this
Summer and it is likely to be a very plentious year of
syder and everything and we shall be very glad to se
you both down in the Country this summer father and
mother their kind love to you both and likewise
myself and no more at pressant from your well wisher.
                                                            J G

Pity the sorrows of a very much put-upon
butcher's boy.

DEAR PARENTS If you do not take Jane away she
has been abuseing me all the Morning and I cannot
do any of my work and now breckfast time is come
lots of meat in shop spoiling and not a bit in house
I call a scandalous shame Stay here I will not to be
treated and scandleised and expersed in the kind of
way that I am for its what I call a miserable Home
instead of a comfortable Home for any Poor fellow.

The class of whose letters I am giving a
sample do not always write in the first person;
they sometimes affect the third, and then
they ring the changes almost as grammatically
as any nobleman suddenly called upon to form
a ministry and writing to the Queen. Here is
a specimen:—

DR SIR, Chas V—— Presents His Compelments
to D—— C—— Esq and Begs to State that he has
a very Hevey Payment to make on Wensday Next and
if Quite Convenant Mr V—— will be much oblige
by his Setteling the Littel Bill as a few small Amounts
will Assist your Obedient Servant
                                                      Chas V

As all correspondence consists, more or
less, of black and white, it may not be out
of place to show how a lady of colour can
write to her friend.

                             Hamilton. Bermuda May 26th.
Miss Adams Bags to Put Miss —— in mind as She
Is inn Such a cheepe Place as inglen  And my Self in
Bermuda That She will Bee much O. Blige to her to
send the Pricte of her Glass which my Self Brooke for
hir the Price I gabe was 11 dollows and I shall Bee
glad to Get it in such as I shall mention 1 Pound
Starling in laining at 1 shilling Per yeard and the other
1. Pound. 4.s. in what Callico or Collourd for a dress
So 1 shall be glead to habe Them as soon as you can
Either to Mr S—— or Mr B—— for me for I must
habe the Money.

As a specimen of what, in these times, may
be termed the strides of cooks, the subjoined
correspondence will serve.

A certain "M. R.," professing to be "a good
plain cook," advertises for a situation without
mentioning particulars. The advertisement
is seen by a lady who answers it as follows;

Mrs. H, being in want of a good plain cook, wishes
to see the advertiser as early as possible. There are
five in family, the washing is put out, but no man
servant is kept. Coach-hire will be paid one way

There is nothing particularly insulting
in this communication, but it elicited the
following reply:

i have advertised for a cook place in  gentelmans
famlay and am surprised you should send for me as i
do not understand being a servant of All work and i
thank it a great peace of impertanance

In his own language, perhaps, the "French
priest"—an emigrant of the first revolution
—who sent the following epistle to a deceased
peer, might have written more correctly, but
he could scarcely have better kept the word of
promise to the ear, even had he been one of
weird sisters, or Professor Puffendorff
himself:

                 Asmansworth November 22th 1814.
MY LORD—Mr. Jolly, french priest. Tooke the
Liberty and the Honour, to Informe your Lordship, if
his Lordship Desire to be Cure'd By the Poison's of
the Gout; he will Give to his Lordship, the Recept of
it; and the Roule who is to follow, and his Lordship
Shall be Cure' Radically Before Lon-Time, and if
his Lordship, Got the Gout in his Marrow Bone, be
shall be Cure'd, if his Lordship will folly Mr. Jolly
Roule &c.
    Mr Jolly will Oblige Any Time his Lordship with
Great Care and attention.

            NEW TALE by Mr. CHARLES DICKENS now
            publishing Weekly in HOUSEHOLD WORDS.
       ON the Eighth of July will be published, in Household
              Words, the FIFTEENTH PORTION of a New
                           Work of Fiction called
                                  HARD TIMES
                           BY CHARLES DICKENS

  The publication of this story will be continued in HOUSEHOLD
WORDS from Week to Week, and completed in Five Months from its
commencement on the First of April.
  Price of each Weekly Number of HOUSEHOLD WORDS,
(containing, besides, the usual variety of matter), Twopence: or Stamped,
Threepence.
  HOUSEHOLD WORDS, CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS
is published also in Monthly Part and in Half-Yearly Volumes.