Page 2 Advertisements Column 5

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 278, 12 December 1877, Page 2

H AWEE A. (from our own correspondent.) Christmas is coming, and signs of the approaching festivities can already by seen. Abundant amusements will be provided, so that those on pleasure bent will have no cause for complaint. Our athletes can be seen every evening practising for the forthcoming sports, and their flushed faces, and stiff gait, tell of no child’s play They have evidently determined to go in and win. I went in to win myself last year. I ate enough grilled steak to put an impoverished butcher on his legs, though it nearly put me off mine. I became very stiff. As the time drew near, I thought, as I had already reduced myself about two stone in weight, that a good sweat would finish me nicely. I stuck up all my friends for their great coats, and having procured and put on about a dozen, with an almost corresponding number of trousers, I started when the thermometer stood at 80 degrees in the shade, for a good brisk walk. 1 felt proud and big—if anything a little too big. People eyed me as 1 passed, and talked to each other in mysterious tones. I exerted myself. I felt that the eye of the world was upon me. The perspiration poured forth in streams, and as coat after