OMNIBUS CHAT.
"Easy travelling this, sir; smooth roads, no turnpikes; no dirt thrown about, no splashing. Pleasant for me, who have just arrived from Van Diemen's Land," (we all looked up at our new visitor V. D. L.)—"yes, sir, where they are 'mending their ways,' as you are here, only not quite so fast; haven't got to Indian-rubber roads yet, though advanced beyond the point at which the traveller in my legend was obliged to stop." This allusion being evidently preparatory to the production of a story, V. D. L. was invited to explain, which he instantly did by chanting the following
Long time ago, when public roads
In far Van Diemen's Land,
Were only fit for frogs and toads,
Composed of pools and sand;
(For folks had not tried newest modes
Of making wood-ways grand);