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this the fact? Whilst we are thinking when we shall begin, is it not often too late to act? Right you are, says you; but where's the sting of the rattlesnake? Where? I exclaim; why, is it not evident that it is no use muddling your brains too much about what you will or what you won't be till the time comes? Still, when the time comes, it is no use wasting it by beginning to consider, as if it was something that had never occurred to you before.

"In the days of my youth" (that's a quotation) we used to try the charm I have given above. There were nine lays to be told off on one's fives; you mentioned how many times you would go, and the profession marked by the little finger in the last tell was your fortune. I have in this way been everything by turns, and always tried to make the best of it. What ever you are, I used to say, stick to it.

Sometimes I was a gentleman; and Bob used to shout to music, "Where's your money to come from, brother, brother? Where's your money to come from, gentle, sweet brother of mine?" I said then, as I say now, the allusion to tin was vulgar. Anybody may be a gentleman if he likes; politeness is not amenable to petty cash. "But if you had no browns," says Bob," coves would cut you." "Let them; if they be masculine, snub them; if they are cheeky, punch their heads; if they are feminine, well, ladies will have ladies' whims, as Crazy Ann said when she draggled her shawl in the gutter. In our time, I fear, we measure gentlemen by broadcloth and bank-notes; there are so many gentlemen and so little gentleness." But tinkering was I not sometimes a tinker? Ay, marry," as every one says in an Elizabethan play, that I have been, "many a time and oft." And are we not all given to tinkering? It is not he only who, with solder and brazier, goes about mending tea-kettles who tinkers. Did you never hear a tinkered sermon? never hear of a tinkered law case? never read a tinkered book? You know it well. Ask the Dr.-ask B. Constrictor: will they own it? Catch 'em alive, oh! not if they know it!

I have been a soldier,-locust in time of peace, hornet in time of war, as a peace-society man would say. Very well, I do not object to a military party, but I prefer, frankly, sailors; and I have no patience with people who are for sending bad boys to sea and keeping the good boys on shore. Get out! I like the sea, and I wonder much what would become of Mrs. What-d'ye-call-'em's little luxuries if the advice she gives over her Chinese tea and West-Indian sugar, about the folly of boys ever going to sea, were to be generally adopted. A farmer is not a bad trade. Agricola, give us your paw: rough and horny,-so much the better; the wisest of us, Mr. Broadacres, would be rather used up without the help of your crops and fat cattle. Science and literature are excellent. Oh, nymphs! oh, poetry! oh, fairies! I am altogether yours; but I do like

roast beef and Yorkshire pudding! Master Ploughboy, your fist,- -a right royal fist! Are you the identical curly-headed individual immortalized in song? Bucolic intelligence gleams in his eye, as he answers, "I baen't zure, zur." No, he is not sure; who can be? Nee semper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus. The most skilful archer can never be sure to hit the mark. Suppose you were a doctor-an apothecary-a medicine-man, could you always be successful, with your pills and potions, lances and leeches, always to make a perfect cure? And so you run the charm-Quod plura? -why say more? Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, gentleman, farmer, ploughboy, 'pothecary, thief. Ay, and according to digitmancy, I was sometimes a thief. I used to fancy-irrespective of the twinges of conscience, the constant dread of being found out, and the loss of all selfrespect, which must be the worst form of punishment, I imagine, if a thief have mind or heart-that the law devised dread penalties for the rogue.

He who prigs what isn't his'n,

When he's cotched will go to pris'n. And prison must be an awful place; my! wasn't I jolly green? I have been shown over a prison since, and I consider it plummy: snug lodgings, each provided with a bell to ring for your servant, the turnkey; trap to regulate the temperature, a little colder or a little warmer, at your will; light work and fair diet. I saw a young fellow picking oakum, and I asked him how he liked it; and he said it was not hard work, sir, but spoilt his fingernails! And this is a rogue's punishment, is it? Why not carpet the cell? Why not hire a French cook? Why not furnish every convicted thief with as much champagne as he pleases ? Why not send a white-chokered waiter, with a smirking mug, over the premises, reiterating the polite invitation, "Gents, give your orders!" You might as well.

But what shall we be? What does it matter? Everything is respectable, except the lastthieving; and that, in my opinion, seems the best looked after. Everything-tailoring, tinkering, sailoring, soldiering, farmering, ploughboying, apothecarying, everything highly respectable in its own position; but, look here, when you are one thing, and try to make believe that you are something different, then you are in Queer Street, and are laughed at for a gaby. Stick to your own; like plays best with like. When the frog attempted to look like the bull, she burst; when the crane attempted to dance with the horse, she got her shins broken. Hold your own part, and play it fairly, whatever it be; and then, though you carry a hod, your part is as respectable as though you bore a sceptre. I don't care what I am,-tinker, tailor, &c. &c.; but this I am quite resolved on,-I won't be a thief, and I will be a gentleman. Ever towards you,

THE ODD BOY.

found it crowded by an immense multitude of men, several of whom held blazing pinetorches aloft. A tall, dark object loomed in the centre, and round it a vast number of persons of all classes were standing, while the torches cast a lurid glow on their agitated faces as they looked up to the platform, on which a man was standing motionless, his face ashy pale, while some half-dozen others grouped around him.

'There's the man that stole the safe," said a voice close to my ear.

"Did he commit any other crime?" said I. "None that they know of," said the same Yankee who had spoken to us on the Battery.

At this moment the hoarse tones of a bell swung heavily on our ears. The vast multitude stood motionless-you might almost have deemed them dumb-while the hoarse bell thundered its gloomy warning. A man at this moment leaped upon the platform, and adjusted the rope round the wretched victim's neck, who looked round upon the mob as if expecting a rescue.

Men of San Francisco, this is the judgment of the Vigilance Committee!" said a deep voice from the platform.

"It's a murder!" shouted Dugald, "a base, bloody murder, and will bring vengeance from the Almighty on your heads."

The wretched victim's face and head were covered with a black cap, and in a minute he was struggling wildly in the air, pushed off by the speaker on the platform. In a moment the men leaped into the crowd, and the multitude slowly dispersed, the torch-light falling

stood rooted with horror to the earth.

"That is the way our Vigilance Committee acts," said the Yankee, in my ear.

Such is justice in San Francisco! *

Sick with the disgusting yet awful example of Lynch law which we had beheld, I gazed at the terrible spectacle, while now the dilatory officers of justice hastened into the Plaza, too late to be of service. The crowd, as if by magic, had dispersed down Washington and Clay Streets; and as the bustling officials arrived, they found no one to apprehend.

I turned away, and the next morning read the account in the Alta about the last night's lawless proceedings.

I cannot avoid here bearing testimony to the superior way in which the Californian papers are turned out. The Alta California is the Times of San Francisco, and almost every village now has its paper in New California. Editing, however, is a dangerous employment in this land, where a running commentary of pistol bullets is the occasional criticism upon a personal leader.

CHAPTER XX.

A YANKEE SKIPPER. WHEN I arrived at San Francisco I found, to my great amazement, that both the Snow Storm and the Izette had sailed, the one two days, and the other just one day before

* Let the Vigilance Committee deny the above, if they dare. I have not ventured to paint the awful scene in its full details.-[AUTHOR.]

my arrival. A letter, which was left for me at the "Bar," however, explained the matter in some sort. Wilmerding had got a "golddust charter," and had to get under weigh at once and the Snow Storm, seizing the opportunity of a fair wind, had got a crew of calashes from the Izette, and had run across to the Sandwich Isles. Wilmerding begged me to take my passage per the "paddle propeller Rappahannock for Panamà, cross the isthmus, and then at Chagres I could find a mode of conveyance easily to New Orleans; "from thence, my boy, you can work up yourself." The letter concluded by desiring me to go to the firm of Messrs. Anthony & Charles Bolder, brokers and merchants, who would supply me with the requisite funds. To tell the truth, I was not sorry at receiving Wilmerding's apologetic epistle; I should see a good deal of the country between Panamà and Chagres, and I had always a strong desire to visit New Orleans. Leefange, I found, had set sail too, and I rode down to Messrs. Bolder's office. I entered the office and found Mr. Anthony, a little rosy-faced funny man, who had a laughing mouth and blue eyes, bald head, and dressed well.

"Glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Halston, Servidor d'usted, as we used to say in the wars long ago in Spain. Now, sir, you wish a passage per Rappahannock; very glad to go with you to the agent's, but suspect she's full, as she sails this evening."

pro

I accompanied Anthony down to the agent's stores, and thereupon he politely informed me that all the berths were taken, but that if I could wait a little longer he would be happy to secure me one on board his next " peller." This I thought would be better than lying on a plank in the Rappahannock, as sofas and every available sleeping-place were appropriated on board her, and we returned to Bolder's together, Anthony requesting me to dine with him next day.

"My dear fellow," said he, " don't stand on ceremony with us, but come and take share of what's going, and at least you get a cead mille failtha, as we say in old Ireland, long life to her."

Accordingly, me voilà next day, steering my course to Anthony's domicile, where I met his brother and a Captain Alanson Hunt, a tall thin sallow Yankee, who smoked incessantly and twanged out his words most delightfully. Then Anthony said grace, and we began the repast.

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I say, Hunt, when d'ye sail ?"

Sartinly, I guess, mister, if the wind don't chop down, I'll be off the day after to-morrow, I rather calc'late."

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Well," said Charles Bolder,

"won't that

be a good chance for Halston ? He may drop down to leeward along with the schooner as far as Panamà, where you are bound for passengers, Hunt."

"I'm agreeable," said Hunt.

"Well now, that's first-rate, boys, and half as expensive as the Smoker, and you'll be there before her after all," quoth Anthony. "That is pleasing stuff," said Hunt, as he drained a glass of Californian wine.

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Come, boys, we are as dull as an old woman

at akadine,' and that's dull enough in all conscience. Take a little more."

"Come now, since you won't eat we must e'en have a glass of good old Port together, 'tis better than all their viands. Hollo, boy, bring the hot water and limes, and here's the key, fetch the flask labelled 'bitters.""

"We made considerable tall sailing in my double-topsail schooner round the Horn, I calc'late."

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Here, come, take a tumbler of negus, my boy, and let your schooner, double toups'led tho' she be, swing at her moorings."

"One tumbler is my maximum, and indeed I think I would be better without it, but moderation, any how, is a grand thing. Mr. Coryngton, will you mix ?"

"I tell you what it is, boys," said Anthony, when he had mixed his glass," the world is mad about gold mines; one time 'tis railways, another 'tis lotteries, now 'tis 'gold diggins.' Ah! long life to the time when my grand-aunt had a fortune in the three-and-ninepenny' notes of Bat Cochlan's Bank; when every merchant at the Weigh-house in Cork passed his own notes like the Bank of Ireland. Oh, ochone! but they were grand times. I remember a case in twenty-five 'in England; it was mighty scarce then to get money, and a gentleman

At this moment a boy rushed in to say that a house was on fire up the street, and out we all sallied. One of the hotels was on fire, and the engines and fire brigade were on the spot. The flames burst forth from the windows, and seemed to mock the exertions of the firemen. Meantime the alarum bells tolled away with a heavy, startling sound.

"In the startled ear of night,

How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,

Out of tune.

Har, my lads, work away wi' a will! Bear a hand, my jolly bursters; hurray for ole Virginnee! Work like alligators. Whish, there's a spout-beautiful!" shouted Alanson Hunt as he threw off his coat and turned to the engine.

I calc'late we shall have to blow up that next haouse," drawled a voice near me.

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Come, my hearts, work away, man the engines, hurrah! I'm most expended at last," quoth Alanson Hunt, after half an hour's hard work at the engine. The fire spread with fearful rapidity, and the next house had to be blown up, which checked its progress; however, the flames communicated unfortunately with the opposite house across the street, owing to the direction of the wind, and then great exertions were made to prevent the houses taking fire on either side, but in vain.

furniture enough without us, these same rowdylooking gentlemen of the Five Points;' so let us see after your 'plunder' and get it aboard, as we drop out to-morrow morning."

Accordingly, the old man and I proceeded to my hotel, and soon succeeded in bringing down my traps to the boat, and were pulled to the Kestrel. The heavens seemed lurid with the reflection of the fire, and the deep tones of the bells swelled out from the city. A great deal of damage was done among the stranded lighters, and one ship caught fire; a glorious object she presented, the flames creeping up the shrouds, and coiling around the spars, while the hull lay one mass of lurid glooming fire; and the craft near her, not able to remove from so dangerous a vicinity, lay around the crew on deck watching the progress of the flames as they were blown near them.

"Give way, my lads, heave ahead! that's your sort, lie out on your oars well, and walk her through it."

After a long pull we reached the schooner; the shore-boat fell off after we had got on board, and I proceeded to my berth, while my "plunder" was left on deck till morning.

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CHAPTER XXI.

MY DOUBLE-TAUPS'L" SCHOONER. "Yo, heave oh! cheerily, oh! cheerily, lads! yo, heave my bursters!" rang in my ears as I dressed myself in my little cabin the next morning.

I was soon ready; and having made my morning supplications to the loving Father of All, I found myself standing on the quarterdeck, while the mate was superintending the process of weighing anchor.

"That's it, lads, heave with a will; that's your sort!"

The anchor rose up slowly from the waters, the schooner cast round, her headsail filled, gradually the breeze swelled the mainsail, the fore-topsail was braced round, and we gathered way through the tiny wavelets of the bay. The day was delicious, the sun had not yet commenced to parch the town and citizens, and we had a pleasant little breeze.

Before us was the vast Pacific, where sky sailed bark lies in the centre of the motionless and water kiss each other; and the little whiteexpanse, with canvas flapping from the long hull, while the tropical sun beams fiercely over yards, and pitch streaming down her black head, and the shark follows day after day, and the dolphin swims round and round, and the the flying fish darts up into the still air, and stately albatross rises on the long rolling swell: low hull, from which arise two tall spars or perchance the scene changes, and a long destitute of canvas is madly hurled along, and the waters burst over her side and run out through the scupper holes to leeward; and the terrified mariners, lashed to the shrouds, gaze around while the storm-fiend exults in the black waves and the sombre sky.

in imagination transport himself, was a very The Kestrel, on board which the reader will handsomely-built craft. She was long, low, and carried her beam well aft; a light rail protected the deck, and two immense tauntspars rose up, raking aft, considerably light

topmasts, and a very long square foresail-yard with what I have never seen in any Britishrigged schooner-a topsail set instead of a gafftopsail over the mainsail, although it is quite a common rig in the American waters. She was, thus, what Alanson Hunt termed a doubletopsail" schooner. We had two six-pounders on board, and in the saloon some half-dozen muskets were ranged bordered by a few cutlasses. The Kestrel boomed out her fore and aft sails, which were beautifully cut, and lay as flat as a board. She was painted entirely black, had a handsomely-carved, appropriate figure-head, the stars and stripes floated from the peak, and a long swaggering pennant blew out aft from the masthead. In one word she was a clipper.

Now as regards the crew, they were certainly a mixed set; we had only three white men including the mate, or reckoning Hunt and myself, there were five whites; the remainder consisted of a North American Indian, a black steward, a Chinese, four Malays, and a Kanaka. We were a baker's dozen. One of the whites was a Spaniard, that is, I mean a Chilesan; he was by far the most powerful man on board, being tall and well-proportioned. The other white sailor was, I think, an Englishman; but he spake Spanish very fluently, and was bronzed by the sun almost as much as the Chilesan, with whom he seemed to be on very good terms.

I shall pass over the space of a day, and recommence my narrative upon the evening subsequent.

We were gliding along gently with a faint breeze. I stood on the quarter-deck for some time after coffee, and then_tumbled into my berth. How long I dozed I know not, but a heavy noise of a large body falling overhead startled me; I listened, then a scuffle on deck aroused me, and a cry of murder in a choked voice. Hastily seizing my pistol which lay under my pillow, I rushed up the companionway and leaped upon the deck.

CHAPTER XXII.

PIRATES.-A MUTINY.

A TALL man was standing near the binnacle, armed with an axe. In front of him crowded the two white seamen and the Malays, while beside him stood the black steward, holding a hand-spike. The bodies of three men lay upon the deck, while the six men attacking the skipper and steward were advancing upon them with creases and knives. Alanson swung his axe round his head, threatening destruction to the mutineers; but just as he aimed a blow at the Spaniard, one of the Malays threw himself on the deck at his feet, and seized him the next moment. I fired at a Malay who was out of the range of the captain, and struck him; he fell upon the deck with a loud yell, and then I fired a second barrel at the Chilesan who was coming up upon me full speed. The ball missed him, and he was upon me. My pistol was only loaded in two chambers. I hastily sprang back, and rushed below to get a cutlass, and down rushed the Chilesan after

his eyes sparkling with rage, his object evidently being to grapple with me, if possible, in which case his superior strength would be available. "Cuidado!" I shouted.

He never minded the warning, but rushed on; and the next moment I struck the knife out of his hand, and aimed a blow at his head which, had it taken effect, would have qualified him for a coroner's inquest. He fairly bolted, and ran off up the companion, while I followed at his heels. Another heavy crash now sounded on the deck as I ran up and chased the Chilesan aft. The skipper and the Malay were stretched on the deck, while the black and the Englishman were struggling for life or death in a fast gripe. Two Malays and the Chilesan were disengaged, but one of the former was wounded, and the latter seemed anxious to press the Malays on to attack me before he would again renew the combat. The Malays accordingly ran in upon me with their creases, but my skill in fencing now served me well. I struck the first pirate down before the others could come on; the black had thrown his adversary heavily against the rail, and a dark object glanced over my head as I stood on the windward side of the deck. I was struck by some heavy body, and fell senseless on the deck. When I recovered consciousness, I found that it was blowing hard, but not a single person could I see on deck; the bodies even had disappeared. shouted out; there was no answer for a few minutes. At last I heard a voice sing out from the forecastle, "Hallo, massa," and out came the steward.

I

"I say, steward," quoth I, "where are the rest of the crew ?".

"All gone, massa, ebery one of 'em; him boom when swinging over jibing, massa, struck him. Spanish rascal overboard, and knocked down, massa; him hit Nero Augustus too, but head very hard, massa. Jolly, massa," and this sable representative of Roman majesty laughed heartily.

But, Nero Augustus, where's the other Malay ?"

"Oh, massa, Nero hurl him overboard, and threw the bodies all after them, ha, ha! except the old man, massa; and the Englishman him tie up below,-mighty snug, ha, ha! Jolly massa. Stop that knockin' below, I tell you, you obstrepolious white man!" This was to the mutineer. "He, he, he! Massa, do you know Massa Nero Augustus war very near throwing massa overboard too, him think him dead."

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Really, Mr. Nero, I am excessively obliged to you, and shall take care how I stand near a boom with you in the schooner again. But I say, where's the Kanaka ?"

"Him dead drunk, massa, all the evening; him no good at all, lying in fo'castle."

"Well then just do you take the helm, and don't trust it in a becket that way, and I'll go below to see the skipper."

I went into the cabin and approached the berth; the dead body of poor Alanson Hunt was lying literally ripped open by the terrible crease upon the bed. The man who only a few hours before had been in the pride of health and strength was now a corpse. Oh,