The Lady of the Laugh.

In the spring man flirts with happiness, always providing that he recognises the Lady of the Laugh when he meets her. “But what is Happiness, Daddy?” Is it perchance indicated by the lambent laugh, can it be related to the inherent inanity of humanity; is it a mere vacuous vibrating of the vocals? Or is it like quick-silver which, according to Cornelius, is something that “when you put your finger on it, it ain't there?” Methinks Cornelius “clicked.” In proof, dear reader, a horse-stinger or jockey (as you like it) was asked in what order of sequence and frequence a horse incited his extremities to action — whether the starboard stilts synchronised, or whether the whole bunch registered equinoxially; the horse-stinger replied in the “nagative,” remarking that a horse never gives his undercarriage a thought, and that if he did he would become so fetlocked that he would fall on his neck and bust his handicap.