_Knock Again._--CHILD'S COMPANION.
1. I remember having been sent, when I was a very little boy, with a
message from my father to a particular friend of his, who resided in the
suburbs of the town in which my parents then lived.
2. This gentleman occupied an old-fashioned house, the door of which was
approached by a broad flight of stone steps of a semi-circular form. The
brass knocker was an object of much interest to me, in those days; for
the whim of the maker had led him to give it the shape of an elephant's
head, the trunk of the animal being the movable portion.
3. Away, then, I scampered, in great haste; and having reached the
house, ran up the stone steps as usual; and, seizing the elephant's
trunk, made the house reecho to my knocking. No answer was returned.
4. At this my astonishment was considerable, as the servants, in the
times I write of, were more alert and attentive than they are at
present. However, I knocked a second time. Still no one came.
5. At this I was much more surprised. I looked at the house. It
presented no appearance of a desertion.
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