"Item, a capon, 2_s_. 2_d_. Item, sauce, 4_d_. Item, sack, two
gallons, 5_s_. 8_d_. Item, bread, a half-penny."
SHAKSPEARE.
The next day John Effingham made no allusion to the conversation of
the previous night, though the squeeze of the hand he gave Paul, when
they met, was an assurance that nothing was forgotten. As he had a
secret pleasure in obeying any injunction of Eve's, the young man
himself sought Captain Truck, even before they had breakfasted, and,
as he had made an acquaintance with 'the commodore,' on the lake,
previously to the arrival of the Effinghams, that worthy was
summoned, and regularly introduced to the honest ship-master. The
meeting between these two distinguished men was grave, ceremonious
and dignified, each probably feeling that he was temporarily the
guardian of a particular portion of an element that was equally dear
to both. After a few minutes passed, as it might be, in the
preliminary points of etiquette, a better feeling and more confidence
was established, and it was soon settled that they should fish in
company, the rest of the day; Paul promising to row the ladies out on
the lake, and to join them in the course of the afternoon.
As the party quitted the breakfast-table, Eve took an occasion to
thank the young man for his attention to their common friend, who, it
was reported, had taken his morning's repast at an early hour, and
was already on the lake, the day by this time having advanced within
two hours of noon.
"I have dared even to exceed your instructions, Miss Effingham," said
Paul, "for I have promised the Captain to endeavour to persuade you,
and as many of the ladies as possible, to trust yourselves to my
seamanship, and to submit to be rowed out to the spot where we shall
find him and his friend the commodore riding at anchor."
"An engagement that my influence shall be used to see fulfilled. Mrs.
Bloomfield has already expressed a desire to go on the Otsego-Water,
and I make no doubt I shall find other companions. Once more let me
thank you for this little attention, for I too well know your tastes,
not to understand that you might find a more agreeable ward."
"Upon my word, I feel a sincere regard for our old Captain, and could
often wish for no better companion. Were he, however, as disagreeable
as I find him, in truth, pleasant and frank, your wishes would
conceal all his faults."
"You have learned, Mr. Powis, that small attentions are as much
remembered as important services, and after having saved our lives,
wish to prove that you can discharge _les petits devoirs socials_, as
well as perform great deeds. I trust you will persuade Sir George
Templemore to be of our party, and at four we shall be ready to
accompany you; until then I am contracted to a gossip with Mrs.
Bloomfield in her dressing-room."
We shall now leave the party on the land, and follow those who have
already taken boat, or the fishermen. The beginning of the
intercourse between the salt-water navigator and his fresh-water
companion was again a little constrained and critical. Their
professional terms agreed as ill as possible, for when the Captain
used the expression 'ship the oars,' the commodore understood just
the reverse of what it had been intended to express; and, once, when
he told his companion to 'give way,' the latter took the hint so
literally as actually to cease rowing. All these professional
niceties induced the worthy ship-master to undervalue his companion,
who, in the main, was very skilful in his particular pursuit, though
it was a skill that he exerted after the fashions of his own lake,
and not after the fashions of the ocean. Owing to several contre-tems
of this nature, by the time they reached the fishing-ground the
Captain began to entertain a feeling for the commodore, that ill
comported with the deference due to his titular rank.
"I have come out with you, commodore," said Captain Truck, when they
had got to their station, and laying a peculiar emphasis on the
appellation he used, "in order to _enjoy_ myself, and you will confer
an especial favour on me by not using such phrases as 'cable-rope,'
'casting anchor,' and 'titivating.' As for the two first, no seaman
ever uses them; and I never heard suchna word on board a ship, as the
last, D----e, sir, if I believe it is to be found in the dictionary,
even."
"You amaze me, sir! 'Casting anchor,' and 'cable-rope' are both Bible
phrases, and they must be right."
"That follows by no means, commodore, as I have some reason to know;
for my father having been a parson, and I being a seaman, we may be
said to have the whole subject, as it were, in the family. St. Paul--
you have heard of such a man as St. Paul, commodore?--"
"I know him almost by heart, Captain Truck; but St. Peter and St.
Andrew were the men, most after my heart. Ours is an ancient calling,
sir, and in those two instances you see to what a fisherman can rise.
I do not remember to have ever heard of a sea-captain who was
converted into a saint."
"Ay, ay, there is always too much to do on board ship to have time to
be much more than a beginner in religion. There was my mate, v'y'ge
before last, Tom Leach, who is now master of a ship of his own, had
he been brought up to it properly, he would have made as
conscientious a parson as did his grandfather before him. Such a man
would have been a seaman, as well as a parson. I have little to say
against St. Peter or St. Andrew, but, in my judgment, they were none
the better saints for having been fishermen; and, if the truth were
known, I dare say they were at the bottom of introducing such
lubberly phrases into the Bible, as 'casting-anchor,' and 'cable-
rope."
"Pray, sir," asked the commodore, with dignity, "what are _you_ in
the practice of saying, when you speak of such matters; for, to be
frank with you, _we_ always use these terms on these lakes."
"Ay, ay, there is a fresh-water smell about them. We say 'anchor,' or
'let go the anchor,' or 'dropped the anchor,' or some such reasonable
expression, and not 'cast anchor,' as if a bit of iron, weighing two
or three tons, is to be jerked about like a stone big enough to kill
a bird with. As for the 'cable-rope,' as you call it, we say the
'cable,' or 'the chain,' or 'the ground tackle,' according to reason
and circumstances. You never hear a real 'salt' flourishing his
'cable-ropes,' and his 'casting-anchors,' which are altogether too
sentimental and particular for his manner of speaking. As for
'ropes,' I suppose you have not got to be a commodore, and need being
told how many there are in a ship."
"I do not pretend to have counted them, but I have seen a ship, sir,
and one under full sail, too, and I know there were as many ropes
about her as there are pines on the Vision."
"Are there more than seven of these trees on your mountain? for that
is just the number of ropes in a merchant-man; though a man-of-war's-
man counts one or two more."
"You astonish me, sir! But seven ropes in a ship?--I should have said
there are seven hundred!"
"I dare say, I dare say; that is just the way in which a landsman
pretends to criticise a vessel. As for the ropes, I will now give you
their names, and then you can lay athwart hawse of these canoe
gentry, by the hour, and teach them rigging and modesty, both at the
same time. In the first place," continued the captain, jerking at his
line, and then beginning to count on his fingers--"There is the 'man-
rope;' then come the 'bucket-rope,' the 'tiller-rope,' the 'bolt-
rope,' the 'foot-rope,' the 'top-rope,' and the 'limber-rope.' I have
followed the seas, now, more than half a century, and never yet heard
of a 'cable-rope,' from any one who could hand, reef, and steer."
"Well, sir, every man to his trade," said the commodore, who just
then pulled in a fine pickerel, which was the third he had taken,
while his companion rejoiced in no more than a few fruitless bites.
"You are more expert in ropes than in lines, it would seem. I shall
not deny your experience and knowledge; but in the way of fishing,
you will at least allow that the sea is no great school. I dare say,
now, if you were to hook the 'sogdollager,' we should have you
jumping into the lake to get rid of him. Quite probably, sir, you
never before heard of that celebrated fish?"
Notwithstanding the many excellent qualities of Captain Truck, he had
a weakness that is rather peculiar to a class of men, who, having
seen so much of this earth, are unwilling to admit they have not seen
it all. The little brush in which he was now engaged with the
commodore, he conceived due to his own dignity, and his motive was
duly to impress his companion with his superiority, which being
fairly admitted, he would have been ready enough to acknowledge that
the other understood pike-fishing much better than himself. But it
was quite too early in the discussion to make any such avowal, and
the supercilious remark of the commodore's putting him on his mettle,
he was ready to affirm that he had eaten 'sogdollagers' for
breakfast, a month at a time, had it been necessary.
"Pooh! pooh! man," returned the captain, with an air of cool
indifference, "you do not surely fancy that you have any thing in a
lake like this, that is not to be found in the ocean! If you were to
see a whale's flukes thrashing your puddle, every cruiser among you
would run for a port; and as for 'sogdollagers,' we think little of
them in salt-water; the flying-fish, or even the dry dolphin, being
much the best eating."
"Sir," said the commodore, with some heat, and a great deal of
emphasis, "there is but _one_ 'sogdollager' in the world, and he is
in this lake. No man has ever seen him, but my predecessor, the
'Admiral,' and myself."
"Bah!" ejaculated the captain, "they are as plenty as soft clams, in
the Mediterranean, and the Egyptians use them as a pan-fish. In the
East, they catch them to bait with, for hallibut, and other middling
sized creatures, that are particular about their diet. It is a good
fish, I own, as is seen in this very circumstance."
"Sir," repeated the commodore, flourishing his hand, and waxing warm
with earnestness, "there is but one 'sogdollager' in the universe,
and that is in Lake Otsego. A 'sogdollager' is a salmon trout, and
not a species; a sort of father to all the salmon trout in this part
of the world; a scaly patriarch."
"I make no doubt _your_ 'sogdollager' is scaly enough; but what is
the use in wasting words about such a trifle? A whale is the only
fish fit to occupy a gentleman's thoughts. As long as I have been at
sea, I have never witnessed the taking of more than three whales."
This allusion happily preserved the peace; for, if there were any
thing in the world for which the commodore entertained a profound,
but obscure reverence, it was for a whale. He even thought better of
a man for having actually seen one, gambolling in the freedom of the
ocean; and his mind became suddenly oppressed by the glory of a
mariner, who had passed his life among such gigantic animals. Shoving
back his cap, the old man gazed steadily at the captain a minute, and
all his displeasure about the 'sogdollagers' vanished, though, in his
inmost mind, he set down all that the other had told him on that
particular subject, as so many parts of a regular 'fish story.'
"Captain Truck," he said, with solemnity, "I acknowledge myself to be
but an ignorant and inexperienced man, one who has passed his life on
this lake, which, broad and beautiful as it is, must seem a pond in
the eyes of a seaman like yourself, who have passed your days on the
Atlantic----"
"Atlantic!" interrupted the captain contemptuously, "I should have
but a poor opinion of myself, had I seen nothing but the Atlantic!
Indeed, I never can believe I am at sea at all, on the Atlantic, the
passages between New-York and Portsmouth being little more than so
much canalling along a tow-path. If you wish to say any thing about
oceans, talk of the Pacific, or of the Great South Sea, where a man
may run a month with a fair wind, and hardly go from island to
island. Indeed, that is an ocean in which there is a manufactory of
islands, for they turn them off in lots to supply the market, and of
a size to suit customers."
"A manufactory of islands!" repeated the commodore, who began to
entertain an awe of his companion, that he never expected to feel for
any human being on Lake Otsego; "are you certain, sir, there is no
mistake in this?"
"None in the least; not only islands, but whole Archipelagos are made
annually, by the sea insects in that quarter of the world; but, then,
you are not to form your notions of an insect in such an ocean, by
the insects you see in such a bit of water as this."
"As big as our pickerel, or salmon trout, I dare say?" returned the
commodore, in the simplicity of his heart, for by this time his local
and exclusive conceit was thoroughly humbled, and he was almost ready
to believe any thing.
"I say nothing of their size, for it is to their numbers and industry
that I principally allude now. A solitary shark, I dare say, would
set your whole Lake in commotion?"
"I think we might manage a shark, sir. I once saw one of those
animals, and I do really believe the sogdollager would outweigh him.
I do think we might manage a shark, sir."
"Ay, you mean an in-shore, high-latitude fellow. But what would you
say to a shark as long as one of those pines on the mountain?"
"Such a monster would take in a man, whole?"
"A man! He would take in a platoon, Indian file I dare say one of
those pines, now, may be thirty or forty feet high!"
A gleam of intelligence and of exultation shot across the weather-
beaten face of the old fisherman, for he detected a weak spot in the
other's knowledge. The worthy Captain, with that species of
exclusiveness which accompanies excellence in any one thing, was
quite ignorant of most matters that pertain to the land. That there
should be a tree, so far inland, that was larger than his main-yard,
he did not think probable, although that yard itself was made of part
of a tree; and, in the laudable intention of duly impressing his
companion with the superiority of a real seaman over a mere fresh-
water navigator, he had inadvertently laid bare a weak spot in his
estimate of heights and distances, that the Commodore seized upon,
with some such avidity as the pike seizes the hook. This accidental
mistake alone saved the latter from an abject submission, for the
cool superiority of the Captain had so far deprived him of his
conceit, that he was almost ready to acknowledge himself no better
than a dog, when he caught a glimpse of light through this opening.
"There is not a pine, that can be called of age, on all the mountain,
which is not more than a hundred feet high, and many are nearer two,"
he cried in exultation, flourishing his hand. "The sea may have its
big monsters, Captain, but our hills have their big trees. Did you
ever see a shark of half that length?"
Now, Captain Truck was a man of truth, although so much given to
occasional humorous violations of its laws, and, withal, a little
disposed to dwell upon the marvels of the great deep, in the spirit
of exaggeration, and he could not, in conscience, affirm any thing so
extravagant as this. He was accordingly obliged to admit his mistake,
and from this moment, the conversation was carried on with a greater
regard to equality. They talked, as they fished, of politics,
religion, philosophy, human nature, the useful arts, abolition, and
most other subjects that would be likely to interest a couple of
Americans who had nothing to do but to twitch, from time to time, at
two lines dangling in the water. Although few people possess less of
the art of conversation than our own countrymen, no other nation
takes as wide a range in its discussions. He is but a very
indifferent American that does not know, or thinks he knows, a little
of every thing, and neither of our worthies was in the least backward
in supporting the claims of the national character in this respect.
This general discussion completely restored amity between the
parties; for, to confess the truth, our old friend the Captain was a
little rebuked about the affair of the tree. The only peculiarity
worthy of notice, that occurred in the course of their various
digressions, was the fact, that the commodore insensibly began to
style his companion "General;" the courtesy of the country in his
eyes, appearing to require that a man who has seen so much more than
himself, should, at least, enjoy a title equal to his own in rank,
and that of Admiral being proscribed by the sensitiveness of
republican principles. After fishing a few hours, the old laker
pulled the skiff up to the Point so often mentioned, where he Lighted
a fire on the grass, and prepared a dinner. When every thing was
ready, the two seated themselves, and began to enjoy the fruits of
their labours in a way that will be understood by all sportsmen.
"I have never thought of asking you, general," said the commodore, as
he began to masticate a perch, "whether you are an aristocrat or a
democrat. We have had the government pretty much upside-down, too,
this morning, but this question has escaped me."
"As we are here by ourselves under these venerable oaks, and talking
like two old messmates," returned the general, "I shall just own the
truth, and make no bones of it. I have been captain of my own ship so
long, that I have a most thorough contempt for all equality. It is a
vice that I deprecate, and, whatever may be the laws of this country,
I am of opinion, that equality is no where borne out by the Law of
Nations; which, after all, commodore, is the only true law for a
gentleman to live under."
"That is the law of the strongest, if I understand the matter,
general."
"Only reduced to rules. The Law of Nations, to own the truth to you,
is full of categories, and this will give an enterprising man an
opportunity to make use of his knowledge. Would you believe,
commodore, that there are countries, in which they lay taxes on
tobacco?"
"Taxes on tobacco! Sir, I never heard of such an act of oppression
under the forms of law! What has tobacco done, that any one should
think of taxing it?"
"I believe, commodore, that its greatest offence is being so general
a favourite. Taxation, I have found, differs from most other things,
generally attacking that which men most prize."
"This is quite new to me, general; a tax on tobacco. The law-makers
in those countries cannot chew. I drink to your good health, sir, and
to many happy returns of such banquets as this."
Here the commodore raised a large silver punch-bowl, which Pierre had
furnished, to his lips, and fastening his eyes on the boughs of a
knarled oak, he looked like a man who was taking an observation, for
near a minute. All this time, the captain regarded him with a
sympathetic pleasure, and when the bowl was free, he imitated the
example, levelling his own eye at a cloud, that seemed floating at an
angle of forty-five degrees above him, expressly for that purpose.
"There is a lazy cloud!" exclaimed the general, as he let go his hold
to catch breath; "I have been watching it some time, and it has not
moved an inch."
"Tobacco!" repeated the commodore, drawing a long breath, as if he
was just recovering the play of his lungs, "I should as soon think of
laying a tax on punch. The country that pursues such a policy must,
sooner or later, meet with a downfall. I never knew good come of
persecution."
"I find you are a sensible man, commodore, and regret I did not make
your acquaintance earlier in life. Have you yet made up your mind on
the subject of religious faith?"
"Why, my dear general, not to be nibbling like a sucker with a sore
mouth, with a person of your liberality, I shall give you a plain
history of my adventures, in the way of experiences, that you may
judge for yourself. I was born an Episcopalian, if one can say so,
but was converted to Presbyterianism at twenty. I stuck to this
denomination about five years, when I thought I would try the
Baptists, having got to be fond of the water, by this time. At
thirty-two I fished a while with the Methodists; since which
conversion, I have chosen to worship God pretty much by myself, out
here on the lake."
"Do you consider it any harm, to hook a fish of a Sunday?"
"No more than it is to eat a fish of a Sunday. I go altogether by
faith, in my religion, general, for they talked so much to me of the
uselessness of works, that I've got to be very unparticular as to
what I do. Your people who have been converted four or five times,
are like so many pickerel, which strike at every hook."
"This is very much my case. Now, on the river--of course you know
where the river is?"
"Certain," said the commodore; "it is at the foot of the lake."
"My dear commodore, when we say 'the river,' we always mean the
Connecticut; and I am surprised a man of your sagacity should require
to be told this. There are people on the river who contend that a
ship should heave-to of a Sunday. They did talk of getting up an
Anti-Sunday-Sailing-Society, but the ship-masters were too many for
them, since they threatened to start a society to put down the
growing of inyens, (the captain would sometimes use this
pronunciation) except of week-days. Well, I started in life, on the
platform tack, in the way of religion, and I believe I shall stand on
the same course till orders come to 'cast anchor,' as you call it.
With you, I hold out for faith, as the one thing needful. Pray, my
good friend, what are your real sentiments concerning 'Old Hickory.'
"Tough, sir;--Tough as a day in February on this lake. All fins, and
gills, and bones."
"That is the justest character I have yet heard of the old gentleman;
and then it says so much in a few words; no category about it. I hope
the punch is to your liking?"
On this hint the old fisherman raised the bowl a second time to his
lips, and renewed the agreeable duty of letting its contents flow
down his throat, in a pleasant stream. This time, he took aim at a
gull that was sailing over his head, only relinquishing the draught
as the bird settled into the water. The 'general' was more
particular; for selecting a stationary object, in the top of an oak,
that grew on the mountain near him, he studied it with an admirable
abstruseness of attention, until the last drop was drained. As soon
as this startling fact was mentioned, however, both the _convives_
set about repairing the accident, by squeezing lemons, sweetening
water, and mixing liquors, _secundem artem._ At the same time, each
lighted a cigar, and the conversation, for some time, was carried on
between their teeth.
"We have been so frank with each other to-day, my excellent
commodore," said Captain Truck, "that did I know your true sentiments
concerning Temperance Societies, I should look on your inmost soul as
a part of myself. By these free communications men get really to know
each other."
"If liquor is not made to be drunk, for what is it made? Any one may
see that this lake was made for skiffs and fishing; it has a length,
breadth, and depth suited to such purposes. Now, here is liquor
distilled, bottled, and corked, and I ask if all does not show that
it was made to be drunk. I dare say your temperance men are
ingenious, but let them answer that if they can."
"I wish, from my heart, my dear sir, we had known each other fifty
years since. That would have brought you acquainted with salt-water,
and left nothing to be desired in your character. We think alike, I
believe, in every thing but on the virtues of fresh-water. If these
temperance people had their way, we should all be turned into so many
Turks, who never taste wine, and yet marry a dozen wives."
"One of the great merits of fresh-water, general, is what I call its
mixable quality."
"There would be an end to Saturday nights, too, which are the
seamen's tea-parties."
"I question if many of them fish in the rain, from sunrise to
sunset."
"Or, stand their watches in wet pee-jackets, from sunset to sunrise.
Splicing the main brace at such times, is the very quintessence of
human enjoyments."
"If liquors were not made to be drunk," put in the commodore,
logically, "I would again ask for what are they made? Let the
temperance men get over that difficulty if they can."
"Commodore, I wish you twenty more good hearty years of fishing in
this lake, which grows, each instant, more beautiful in my eyes, as I
confess does the whole earth; and to show you that I say no more than
I think, I will clench it with a draught."
Captain Truck now brought his right eye to bear on the new moon,
which happened to be at a convenient height, closed the left one, and
continued in that attitude until the commodore began seriously to
think he was to get nothing besides, the lemon-seeds for his share.
This apprehension, however, could only arise from ignorance of his
companion's character, than whom a juster man, according to the
notions of ship-masters, did not live; and had one measured the punch
that was left in the bowl when this draught was ended, he would have
found that precisely one half of it was still untouched, to a
thimblefull. The commodore now had his turn; and before he got
through, the bottom of the vessel was as much uppermost as the butt
of a club bed firelock. When the honest fisherman took breath after
this exploit, and lowered his cup from the vault of heaven to the
surface of the earth, he caught a view of a boat crossing the lake,
coming from the Silent Pine, to that Point on which they were
enjoying so many agreeable hallucinations on the subject of
temperance.
"Yonder is the party from the Wigwam," he said, "and they will be
just in time to become converts to our opinions, if they have any
doubts on the subjects we have discussed. Shall we give up the ground
to them, by taking to the skiff, or do you feel disposed to face the
women?"
"Under ordinary circumstances, commodore, I should prefer your
society to all the petticoats in the State, but there are two ladies
in that party, either of whom I would marry, any day, at a minute's
warning."
"Sir," said the commodore with a tone of warning, "we, who have lived
bachelors so long, and are wedded to the water, ought never to speak
lightly on so grave a subject."
"Nor do I. Two women, one of whom is twenty, and the other seventy--
and hang me if I know which I prefer."
"You would soonest be rid of the last, my dear general, and my advice
is to take her."
"Old as she is, sir, a king would have to plead hard to get her
consent. We will make them some punch, that they may see we were
mindful of them in their absence."
To work these worthies now went in earnest, in order to anticipate
the arrival of the party, and as the different compounds were in the
course of mingling, the conversation did not flag. By this time both
the salt-water and the fresh-water sailor were in that condition when
men are apt to think aloud, and the commodore had lost all his awe of
his companion.
"My dear sir," said the former, "I am a thousand times sorry you came
from that river, for, to tell you my mind without any concealment, my
only objection to you is that you are not of the middle states. I
admit the good qualities of the Yankees, in a general way, and yet
they are the very worst neighbours that a man can have."
"This is a new character of them, commodore, as they generally pass
for the best, in their own eyes. I should like to hear you explain
your meaning."
"I call him a bad neighbour who never remains long enough in a place
to love any thing but himself. Now, sir, I have a feeling for every
pebble on the shore of this lake, a sympathy with every wave,"--here
the commodore began to twirl his hand about, with the fingers
standing apart, like so many spikes in a _che-vaux-de-frise_--"and
each hour, as I row across it, I find I like it better; and yet, sir,
would you believe me, I often go away of a morning to pass the day on
the water, and, on returning home at night, find half the houses
filled with new faces."
"What becomes of the old ones?" demanded Captain Truck; for this, it
struck him, was getting the better of him with his own weapons. "Do
you mean that the people come and go like the tides?"
"Exactly so, sir; just as it used to be with the herrings in the
Otsego, before the. Susquehannah was dammed, and is still, with the
swallows."
"Well, well, my good friend, take consolation. You'll meet all the
faces you ever saw here, one day in heaven."
"Never; not a man of them will stay there, if there be such a thing
as moving. Depend on it, sir," added the commodore, in the simplicity
of his heart, "heaven is no place for a Yankee, if he can get farther
west, by hook or by crook. They are all too uneasy for any steady
occupation. You, who are a navigator, must know something concerning
the stars; is there such a thing as another world, that lies west of
this?"
"That can hardly be, commodore, since the points of the compass only
refer to objects on this earth. You know, I suppose, that a man
starting from this spot, and travelling due west, would arrive, in
time, at this very point, coming in from the east; so that what is
west to us, in the heavens, on this side of the world, is east to
those on the other."
"This I confess I did not know, general. I have understood that what
is good in one man's eyes, will be bad in another's; but never before
have I heard that what is west to one man, lies east to another. I am
afraid, general, that there is a little of the sogdollager bait in
this?"
"Not enough, sir, to catch the merest fresh-water gudgeon that swims.
No, no; there is neither east nor west off the earth, nor any up and
down; and so we Yankees must try and content ourselves with heaven.
Now, commodore, hand me the bowl, and we will get it ready down to
the shore, and offer the ladies our homage. And so you have become a
laker in your religion, my dear commodore," continued the general,
between his teeth, while he smoked and squeezed a lemon at the same
time, "and do your worshipping on the water?"
"Altogether of late, and more especially since my dream."
"Dream! My dear sir, I should think you altogether too innocent a man
to dream."
"The best of us have our failings, general. I do sometimes dream, I
own, as well as the greatest sinner of them all."
"And of what did you dream--the sogdollager?"
"I dreamt of death."
"Of slipping the cable!" cried the general, looking up suddenly.
"Well, what was the drift?"
"Why, sir, having no wings, I went down below, and soon found myself
in the presence of the old gentleman himself."
"That was pleasant--had he a tail? I have always been curious to know
whether he really has a tail or not."
"I saw none, sir, but then we stood face to face, like gentlemen, and
I cannot describe what I did not see."
"Was he glad to see you, commodore?"
"Why, sir; he was civilly spoken, but his occupation prevented many
compliments."
"Occupation!"
"Certainly, sir; he was cutting out shoes, for his imps to travel
about in, in order to stir up mischief."
"And did he set you to work?--This is a sort of State-Prison affair,
after all!"
"No sir, he was too much of a gentleman to set me at making shoes as
soon as I arrived. He first inquired what part of the country I was
from, and when I told him, he was curious to know what most of the
people were about in our neighbourhood."
"You told him, of course, commodore?"
"Certainly, sir, I told him their chief occupation was quarrelling
about religion; making saints of them selves, and sinners of their
neighbours. 'Hollo!' says the Devil, calling out to one of his imps,
'boy, run and catch my horse--I must be off, and have a finger in
that pie. What denominations have you in that quarter, commodore? So
I told him, general, that we had Baptists, and Quakers, and
Universalists, and Episcopalians, and Presbyterians, old-lights, new-
lights, and blue-lights; and Methodists----. 'Stop,' said the Devil,
'that's enough; you imp, be nimble with that horse.--Let me see,
commodore, what, part of the country did you say you came from?' I
told him the name more distinctly this time----"
"The very spot?"
"Town and county."
"And what did the Devil say to that?"
"He called out to the imp, again--'Hollo, you boy, never mind that
horse; _these_ people will all be here before I can get there.'"
Here the commodore and the general began to laugh, until the arches
of the forest rang with their merriment. Three times they stopped,
and as often did they return to their glee, until, the punch being
ready, each took a fresh draught, in order to ascertain if it were
fit to be offered to the ladies.