Assume for a time all this joyousness.
PUNCH has entered as a pupil at a medical school (he is not at liberty to
say which), on purpose to note your propensities, and requests you for a
short period to look upon him as one of your own lot. His course will
commence next week, and "The New Man" will be the subject.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
MICHAELMAS DAY
Every one knows that about this time of the year geese are in their prime,
and are particularly good when stuffed with sage; which accounts for the
fact, that Sibthorp has made some sage remarks, so that he may not lose by
comparison with the "foolish birds," with whom he feels a natural
sympathy.
We have never been able to discover the connexion between geese and
Michaelmas. There is a reason for associating ducks with Midsummer: we can
understand the meaning of poultry at Christmas, for _birds_ are
appropriate to a period when every one sends in _his bill_; but why poor
St. Michael should be so degradingly associated with a goose is beyond our
comprehension, and baffles our ingenuity. If St. Michael had been a
tailor, or an actor, or an author, we could have understood how _goose_
might have applied to him; but as he was neither one nor the other, we
really are at a loss to conceive why a goose should have become so
intimately associated with his name and character.
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