The Incendiary Ash Barrel.

The Incendiary Ash Barrel.

他是一个善于交际的家伙,是ash-barrel! He likes above all things to snuggle up in a corner of the wood-shed or under the back stairs, and smoke a little, and gossip with the cobwebs and dry wood and inflammable things generally, which are usually lying around his neighborhood in artistic confusion, He is round in belly and apparently jolly, but unfortunately, like many others of his build, much given to lazy habits, out of which grow mischief.

You could scarcely accuse so rotund and quiet an object as an ash-barrel of incendiary designs ; he would not be said to entertain either the desire or the intention to burn up himself and other property also ; but with or without intention, he is beyond all question much given to doing those very things, and hence, notwithstanding his easy temper and deceptive affability, he should be put out in the cold, and kept at a most chilling distance by all persons who value the safety of their property. It would be better still to put him out of existence, and substitute for him a prosaic iron vessel ; or better still, a solitary and immovable hole in the ground. A brick vault with an iron or stone cover is, after all, the best dwelling-place for your lively ash-barrel. His habits'of sociability should be discouraged, and he compelled to adopt the life of a hermit.