Masonic Reminiscences.

manage it , llobin is the very lad for your game . " Eobin was a huge old he goat , up to all sorts of tricks—indeed , it was a question among the visitors , which was the greater rogue , Eobin , or his master . Things being thus far arranged , Phil was ushered into a small room at the end of the dining room , which opened by a glass door on a plateau leading by steps to the back of the house ; they turned his coat inside , out ,

took off his top boots , shaved one side of his head and face , and blackened the other ; they put him through a variety of absurd postures , which he was to go through before the Grand Master to whom he would be introduced in a few minutes .

While these operations were going on , the landlord planted himself at the far end of the dinner table , with ' a large t"ible cloth , concealing all his person but his naked arms , which surrounded Eobin as if they belonged to him , who stood before him on his hind legs , his fore legs resting on the table , and also concealed by the white cloth , nothing of him appearing to view , but his head , ornamented with immense horns , and a most venerable beard .

The door was now thrown open , and Phil was told to advance , and go through his lesson . Phil stood in the doorway petrified with horror ; he believed to a certainty he stoodin the veritable presence of the " evil one , " and when he saw his arm wave , and heard a hollow unearthly voice order him to advance , his knees trembled , and he could not stir . In a moment all was darkness , and nothing could be seen but the glaring eyes , and the

horns of the goat , which had been rubbed over with phosphorus ; thunder and lightning were now imitated after the best theatrical fashion . Phil could stand it no longer , he rushed through the g ' ass door , down to the stable , mounted his horse without hat or boots , and never slacked rein till he reached home . Entering the stables the curve was rather sharp , the horse stumbled , and pitched Phil into a cess-pool ; half suffocated but not

hurt , he made his way in the dark to the pump to try and get rid of a portion of the mud and filth before he entered the house . He seized what he believed to be the pump handle , and after working it a little , and ducking under the spout to receive the stream , became suddenly impressed with the notion , that the old pump had become animated . Looking up he distinctly saw the head of a man , with distended and

straining jaivs , which his fears magnified into the most gigantic proportions , pouring forth what he vowed was fire and brimstone ; in the very frenzy of frantic terror lie rushed towards the house , shouting murder , and fell exhausted at the entrance , where his uncle found him . The Colonel , having procured a light , proceeded to unravel the mystery of the pump ; he there discovered Phelim , pale , sick , and almost paralyzed

with terror , hugging the old pump with his only arm , in an embrace closer than he ever bestowed in war , friendship , or love . As a substitute for his lost arm , he had contrived an , ingenious piece of mechanism of wood and iron , which Phil grasped in mistake for the pump handle . It appeared that on that day , Phelim had received his pension , and , as was his invariable custom , got most gloriously drunk ; he had but arrived a few moments before Phil , and went to the pump to cool his parched and burning throat ;