as telling what may turn up when onest you 're in chace. So, as I said, I pitches him a lump of beef, and Yo-hoy!' says I, will you haul your wind and go along wi' me?' So he picks up the beef, and winks his one eye at me, as much as to say, 'Don't let my master know, and I'll be under your starn in a minute. All's well and good,' says I, ' and there's no more about it.' So I christens him' Boney,' and coaxes and pats him; and away he dropt into my wake alongside o' Beauty, just as natʼral as life.

"And a pretty fleet there was of us messmates, as we went sailing along all ship-shape, in three divisions. First, there was Muster Gunter, the master, reg'lar Dutch build, weighing about eighteen stone, and as full of blubber as a sparmacity. By his side was Muster Stork, the purser, as fat as a match, and his legs swelled as thick as tobaccopipes: he was nearly a fathom in length, and he looked for all the world as if his mother had stretched him out like a thread-paper that his figure might keep tally with his name. These two, with their guns over their shoulders, formed the wan division. Then there was me, Bill Thompson, made the centre division; and the two hanimals, Boney and Beauty, brought up the rear. So away we goes into the fields, where I hadn't been for many a long day-no, not since I was a younker and went birds'-nesting. Howsomever, away we went, and every now and then the guns went bang! but we couldn't never see no game whatsomever to pick up; so I sarches along in the dykes, and the dogs follows me; and, being out of sight of the officers, I sarves out the rum in fair drams atwixt myself and the hanimals, seeing as we had most of the work to do."

"You don't mean to say, Bill, that you gave the dogs the rum ?" said the sergeant of marines, who stood leaning against the mast.

"But I do, though!" responded Bill somewhat angrily. "Do you think I'd cheat a messmate? for I baled 'em out full measures, and axed 'em to take it, and if they wouldn't, why then in good right as belonging to the same mess, it was mine; and so, every time as I took a nip myself, in course I sarved it out to them. I defy any messmate as ever I had, to say I ever wronged him!"

"I'm satisfied, Bill," said the sergeant of marines, laughing; “such messmates, when they pipe to grog, would be convenient every day. -But go on, my boy!"

"Well, shipmates," continued Bill, "d- the thing could we find, though both the purser and master swore they'd hit everything they'd fired at; and, being cowld, I got behind a haystack with the hanimals, and fell foul of the beef and bread, whilst the officers were sarching for hares, and rabbits, and pheasants, and ducks, and partridges; and a precious lot on 'em they shot, ounly the creaturs couldn't be found. At last the grub was all gone, and we'd emptied the bottle; so I made convenient to drop the bag as we were crossing some stubble to join the rest of the fleet; and then I got a blowing-up for my carelessness, and they swore I was drunk,-as if one bottle of rum was likely to tosticate three on us. But they were cowld and hungry, and so we bore up for a snug village; where we got into a capital roadstead, and the master ordered a fresh supply of provisions, eggs and bacon, and roast pork, with a glorious mixing of hot flip and ale, and brandy pawney. So the officers dines by theirsels, in course, in one room; and we-that's me, and Boney, and Beauty-pipes to dinner in another; and so I makes each on 'em sit up at table all messmate-like, and sarves out the grub

VOL. III.

P

reg'lar fair and square, and offers 'em the suction as I did afore, and, as they wouldn't stow it away, I was compelled to take their share and my own too. And a jovial time we had of it! we lived like fightingcocks, and Boney wink'd his one eye and Beauty wagged his stump as I drank Better times to us!' and the lubbers in the galley laughed, and there was a precious shindy.

"Arter a good tuck-out, and hoisting in a proper allowance o' strong flip, the master would go out and try his luck with the gun again; so away we went and I'm blessed if I didn't see plenty of game,—for every sparrow looked to me as big as a turkey-cock; but, somehow or other, they all got away. At last says Muster Gunter, says he, 'Hould on, Thompson; there's a fine hare!' And sure enough there was someut upon a ridge near the middle of the field as looked werry much like it; though Muster Stork, who was more aloft than we, swore it was no such thing. Howsomever, the master would let fly at it, and sartinly he knocked it over between the ridges dead enough; but whilst we were going towards the place, we hears the terriblest rumpus behind, and I'm blessed if there warn't a bull coming up astarn within a few fathoms of us! his spanker-boom rigged straight out abaft, and his bow-chasers pointed towards ould Muster Gunter. 'Run, master, run!' shouts the purser, making sail away, and trusting to the length of his heels. Run, your honour!' says I, or else I'm d— if he don't mean boarding on you!' And so the ould man starts, and carries on a taut press; and I tries by sending a shot at the hanimal to draw him off the chase. Well, he hauls his wind for an instant; but, seeing there wur three on us in the centre and rear division, he ups stick again, and cracks on arter the master, who luckily had got a start through the diversion I had made, and reached the hedge leading into the next field; but he couldn't get through, for the passage was choked by one of them yarn-winch stiles, and he got jammed hard and fast in the middle of it just as the bull was coming to close quarters.

666

Hurrah, messmates!' says I to the two dogs. Hurrah, Boney! hurrah, Beauty! bear down to the rescue!' And so off we set, the hanimals understanding me all the same as natʼral-born Christens; so that just as the bull was going to sky Muster Gunter up like a ha'penny for heads or tails, Boney seizes him by the nose and pins him down, whilst Beauty catches hould of his neck. 'And that's my darlings!' says I; they're reg'lar hunters; nothing comes amiss to 'em, from a cockroach to a buffalo!' Well, shipmates, at that very momentum,the master stuck hard and fast, and the bull repelling the boarding-party,-up comes a gang of liberty-boys from the ould Rattlesnake, as was lying next hulk to ours, who had come out for a country-cruise, and we soon drove the bull off, with the help of Boney and Beauty; and having got the master out of limbo by rousing down the stancheon, we look'd out for the purser; but, like the game they 'd shot, he warn't nowhere to be seen, till at last we diskivered a pair of heels sticking out of a hedge, and I'm blowed if they warn't Muster Stork's! He'd taken a run to jump over, thinking the hanimal's horns were in his starn; had made a bit of a slip, and come down head-foremost on to the top of the hedge, burying his head and shoulders in the bushes, and jamming his arms like Jackson so as he had no manner o' use on 'em: and there he stuck, with his legs spread out, looking for all the world like the letter Y, or more like the Shears beacon in the Swin.-Well, arter a good deal o' trouble and man-handling we roused him out o' that, and set him on eend all ataunto, except his figure-head, which had got d-ly

mauled amongst the brambles. But the master would go for the hare he had shot, and so we all made sail along with him to the place; and when we got there, he lifts it up from atwixt the ridges and what do you think it was, shipmates? Well, then, I 'm blowed if it warn't the bread-bag as I'd dropped there afore dinner! and the shot had knocked the rum-bottle all to shivers, so that me and my messmates were saved from blame in regard of the stuff being gone."

A general laugh followed this announcement, which brought a command from the quarter-deck for "less noise, and a better look-out on the fokstle!"

"Well, shipmates," continued Bill, as soon as the usual "Ay, ay, my lord!" had been given, "away we sherried with the master's hare, shaping our course for the public-house; and if we didn't have a jovial sheave-o for the rest of the day, then nobody never had a jovial sheave-o in their lives: and Boney and Beauty were treated to the best the place could afford, and if they 're alive now, they arn't forgot no more nor me, the day we went out a-shooting."

THE THREE DAMSELS.

THREE damsels looked down from the castle tower
That frowned o'er the winding vale,

Where, borne on his steed of matchless breed,

Rode their sire in knightly mail.

"And welcome, Sir Father! and welcome," they cried,
"To thy daughters, who long for thy coming have sighed !
Oh, say, what gifts dost thou bring?"

"On thee thy fond father hath thought to-day,
My fair girl in yellow drest;

For dear to thy heart is the toilet's art,
And jewels and gems please thee best.
So take thou this chain of ruddy gold;

I won it in fight from a gallant bold,

And that gallant bold I slew !"

The damsel hath flung that glittering chain

Her swan-like neck around;

And she sought out the spot where the gallant slain
All drenched in his gore she found.

"Oh, shame, that a knight like a knave should lie
The scorn and the scoff of each vulgar eye!

Hath my loved one no resting-place?"

And his ghastly corpse in her arms she bore
To the ground that the priests had blest;
And she murmured a prayer as she laid him there
In the tomb where her fathers rest.

And close round her neck the chain she drew
Till the last breath of life from her bosom flew,

And she slumbered by him she loved!

Two damsels looked down from the castle tower
That frowned o'er the winding vale,
Where, borne on his steed of matchless breed,
Rode their sire in knightly mail.

"And welcome, Sir Father! and welcome," they cried,
"To thy daughters, who long for thy coming have sighed!
Oh, say, what gifts dost thou bring?"

"On thee thy fond father hath thought to-day,
My fair girl that in green art drest;
For dearly thou lovest to greenwood to stray,
And the chase ever joys thee best.

Then take thou this javelin, my venturous child;
I won it in fight from the hunter wild,

And the hunter wild I slew !"

The javelin she took from her father's hand,
Then roamed to the greenwood away;

But the horn that she wound gave a dirge-like sound,
'Stead of hunter's roundelay :

And she saw 'neath a willow-tree's mournful shade
The youth of her heart in deep sleep laid,-

The deep, deep sleep of death!

"Oh, true to the faith that I plighted, I come

To our trysting-place, loved one, to thee!"
And quick in her heart hath she buried the dart,
And sunk her beneath the tree.
And o'er the two fond ones sweet flow'rets spring,
And the birds of the forest at summer-tide sing
The lovers' lullaby!

One damsel looked down from the castle tower
That frowned o'er the winding vale,

Where, borne on his steed of matchless breed,
Rode her sire in knightly mail.

"And welcome, Sir Father! and welcome," she cried,
"To thy daughter, who long for thy coming hath sighed !
Oh, say, what gift dost thou bring?"

"Nay, think not thy sire hath forgotten thee,

My fair girl that in white art drest;

For dearer than gems are the soft flowers to thee,
And the gardens e'er joy thee best.

From the gardener so skilled, for my darling one,
This flow'ret, than silver far fairer, I won,

And the gardener so skilled I slew !"

"And hast thou then slain that gardener so skilled,— That gardener so skilled hast thou slain?

My flowers did he rear with a father's care

Now they never will bloom again!

And he swore to his loved one, no fairer flower

E'er blushed 'midst the beauties of Flora's bower
Than the flow'ret he nurtured for me!"

Then next to her bosom so gentle she laid
The flow'ret her father had given:

And forth to the garden she dolefully strayed,-
That garden her home and her heaven!
There a small mound freshly raised she descried,
And the lilies, like mourners, were drooping beside;

And she sunk on that freshly-raised mound!

"Oh, could I but do as my sisters have done,-
But die as my sisters have died!-

But my delicate flower to wound hath no power,
And death at its hands is denied!"

Like the flower that she gazed on, so wan and pale,
Did she breathe out her life to the passing gale;-
Like her flower did she fade and die!

ONE OF MANY TALES.

BY A NEGLECTED OPERATIVE.

SIR, It was not until I had ascertained beyond all dispute that there are publications both ready and able to defend retiring merit, and to exhibit in their true light all instances of neglect, and cruelty, and persecution, which may be properly brought forward, that I resolved on sending you a sketch of my case. You are probably well aware that in an early number of a popular magazine a full statement will be given of the proceedings of the Custom-house officer who insisted on searching the trunk of an elephant recently imported, and actually did turn it inside out, urging that he was fully authorised so to do, and was but acting up to the letter of his instructions. So, however, it is; and the knowledge of this circumstance having reached the ears of the editor, he has most benevolently determined to expose the officer, vindicate the beast, and have his disarranged trunk set to rights, and returned; and you, sir, will, I am sure, feel sufficiently for me, when you have fully perused my knotty statement, to bring it before the notice of a sympathising public.

Talent and merit are indeed often allowed to wither in obscurity for want of a discriminating and fostering patron; but it is not often that an active and unflinching servant of the crown, whose capabilities are known, and whose efficiency has been for years exhibited and valued both at home and abroad, is, while in the full vigour of his powers, left neglected and unpensioned. The foremost in the fight, the unflinching advocate of military and naval discipline, the tried friend, and steady supporter, and constant advocate of every officer in both services, I have worked my way into notoriety, and have been invariably looked on with the most profound veneration, though sometimes it has been my misfortune to fall into rough and unskilful hands. But, while I have been constantly held up as a most striking example of all that was required in my situation, while I have never been suspected, much less accused, of imbecility, of cowardice, of unfitness in any way whatever for the station I have long occupied,-I find myself day by day more neglected, and called every week of my existence into less active operation. I am, sir, already little better than laid on the shelf. I am spoken of with indifference bordering on contempt, by very many who I believed would to their dying day have borne the most indelible impressions of my exertions on their behalf; men, sir, who have received my favours unseen, for whom I have laboured when they were unable to tell from whom the benefit came, these very beings are the first and the most active in the conduct of which I complain. And this is a hard case; it is, however, mine. Redress in some shape I must have! An ample restitution I can never expect! for even, were Jupiter himself to make a general auction of Olympus, and pay me over the proceeds, I doubt greatly if they would satisfy my claims. I have many, very many cutting tales to bring forward, any one of which would, I am sure, sir, produce on your readers the most sensible effects, as they already have done on all who have practically perused their startling conclusions. Will you, sir, devote a few pages to a hasty statement of some particulars, and assist me in the recovery of that station which I have