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Dunstan Times, Issue 264, 17 May 1867, Page 3

The late Fev. Zeb. Twitchell was the most noted Methodist minuter in Vermont for shrewd and laughable sayings. In the pulpit he maintained a suitab'e gravity of expression, hut out of the pulpit he overflowed with mischief. Occasionally he would iutroduce something very queer into the sermon for the sake of arousing the flagging attention of his hearers. It was lit, who originated the story of great mosquitoes. Seei; g some of his audience were getting sleepy, he paused i'. his discourse and digressed as follows ;—"Brethren, you haven't any idea of how the missionaries suffer in the new settlements on account of the mosquitoes. In some of those regions they are enormous. A great many of them will weigh a pound, and they will get on the logs and bark when the missionaries are coming along.,' By this time all ears and eyes were opened, and lie proceeded with his discourse. The next day one of his hearers called him to account for telling lies in the pulpit. "There was never a mosquito that weighed a poir d " " But I did not siy that one would weigh a pound. I said Uiat many of them would weigh a pound, nnd I think a million would." "But you said they wo'ild hark at the missionaries." '-No, no, brother, I said they would get on the logs and bark." Calculati- g Risk*.—"lt wi 1 not do," says Sydney Smith, «• to be always calcu lating risks, and adjusting nice chances. It diJ all very well before the flood, when a man could consult his friends upon an intended publication for a hundred ard fifty years ; but at preset a man waits, and doubts, and hesitates, and consults his brother; and his uncle, and his cousins and particular friends, till one day he finds that he is sixty five years old—that he has lost so much time in consulting his first cousins and his particular friends, that he has no time left to follow their advice.