Two men were seated in easy attitudes on the grass by the churchtwo men of the class of itinerant showmen, exhibitors of the freaks of Punchand they had come there to make needful repairs in the stage arrangements, for one was engaged in binding together a small gallows with thread, while the other was fixing a new black wig upon the head of a puppet.

Jugglers and itinerary showmen.'Bara Roopes,' or actors and mimics.

"My respecks to St. George and the Dragoon," wrote the gay and festive showman, at the conclusion of an epistlepenned under the very shadow of "moral wax statters"to the Prince of Wales.

We read nowadays in the market-placeI would rather say in some large steam factory of letter-press, where damp sheets of new print whirl round us perpetuallyif it be not rather some noisy book-fair where literary showmen tempt us with performing dolls, and the gongs of rival booths are stunning our ears from morn till night.

To the side, in front of the well-kept fertile fields, like a proud little showman, stood the little house.

This was the merest showman's patter, for, as a matter of fact, it was not a very wonderful illusion.

Then, perhaps, a regiment marches past with colors flying and trumpets braying; or a fantastic-looking funeral goes by, with a hearse like a four-post bed hung with black velvet and silver; or the peripatetic showman with his company of white rats establishes himself on the pavement opposite, till admonished to move on by the sergent de ville.

"You see," cried Percy, who was the principal showman, "the neighbors are all on pins and needles about him.

* Poets and prophets 'mongst the ancient Romans Were deemed the same, and this our pockets rue, For on this creed is built our sacred showman's, Who has his poets and his profits too.

as a speculative showman said), I may tell the reader, if he cares to hear it, the story of my second life.

"Ladies and gentlemen," drawled Leith, looking around at us with the air of a cheap showman springing a novelty upon a gaping mob, "you are on the edge of the Vermilion Pit, the greatest wonder between Penang and the Paumotus.

His madness consisted of stealing giants; like an unscrupulous travelling showman.

Here there is but the whimsical suggestion of a favourite showman and low comedian mounted on an elephant to play King Porus.]