Salmagundi; or, The whim-whams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq. [pseud.] and others. By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving. Printed from the original ed., with a preface and notes by Evert A. Duyckinck.

WHIM-WHAMS. 121
the master down to the footman. The very cats and dogs are
humorists; and we have a little runty scoundrel of a cur, who,
whenever the church bells ring, will run to the street door, turn
up his nose in the wind, and howl most piteously. Jeremy
insists that this is owing to a peculiar delicacy in the organization of his ears, and supports his position by many learned
arguments which nobody can understand; but I am of opinion
that it is a mere Cockloft whim-wham, which the little cur
indulges, being descended from a race of dogs which has flourished in the family ever since the time of my grandfather. A
propensity to save everything that bears the stamp of family
antiquity, has accumulated an abundance of trumpery and rubbish with which the house is encumbered from the cellar to the
garret; and every room, and closet, and corner, is crammed with
three legged chairs, clocks without hands, swords without scabbards, cocked hats, broken candlesticks, and looking-glasses, with
frames carved into fantastic shapes of feathered sheep, woolly
birds, and other animals that have no name except in books of
heraldry. The ponderous mahogany chairs in the parlors are of
such unwieldy proportions that it is quite a serious undertaking
to gallant one of them across the room, and sometimes make a
most equivocal noise when you sit down in a hurry; the mantelpiece is decorated with little lacquered earthen shepherdesses;
some of which are without toes, and others without noses; and the
fire-place is garnished out with Dutch tiles, exhibiting a great
variety of Scripture pieces, which my good old soul of a cousin
takes infinite delight in explaining. Poor Jeremy hates them as
he does poison; for, while a younker, he was obliged by his
mother to learn the history of a tile every Sunday morning before
she would permit him to join his playmates; this was a terrible
affair for Jeremy, who, by the time he had learned the last, had
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