fashion. A wild life it must be among far | pany's factory. The captain and most of our seas and savage isles; but Dick had spent officers went there every day. Fine rooms they years in it, and quite became his schooling. had, lined with china and looking-glasses, I He swore hard, and drank harder when he can tell you. But we seamen were restricted to got it would have ventured on anything, the boat-town, having a general order not to with either tongue or hands; and was never go on shore, on account of the Chinese laws known to keep out of a scrape or quarrel when against foreigners. There were forty thousand he could get into one. junks anchored in the river, in long lines, with streets of water between, through which the ships of all nations came and went. In these boats, all manner of trade and shop-keeping was carried on, and people had lived and died for I know not how many generations. However, there was nothing to be seen but eternal flocks of ducks, with dirty men and boys among them. Just think, Master Harry, what a dull spot it must be where a woman's face is never visible, though I'm sure I heard some of them scolding inside! That's done everywhere, you see; but it was our belief, that the boat-people were neither so smart at their work, nor so clever in cheating, as the men who came down from Canton.

I can't say that any of us liked Dick, for he had a raw nature-maybe there was a crack somewhere in his brain; but we would have missed him as the odd man of the ship. With some sorts of captains, Dick would have had hard times; as it was, his grog was stopped now and then; but things went quietly on in our ship. The voyage out was prosperous. We never lost a man or saw an enemy. The Malays, too, had got wind of our coming, and kept well out of sight. Sail where we would, there was not a prow to be seen; but after beating about Fokien and Formosa for nearly a month, the East India Company's packet, Maharajah, from Canton to Madras, hailed us one morning; and her captain came on aboard with a long story of something that had happened between the tea-merchants and the mandarins. It wasn't much of a matter either. The Chinamen wanted more bucksheesh than the merchants were willing to give; but our captain thought the sight of an English schooner in the river might help to 'settle things; so the helm was put about, and the Rattlesnake steered for Canton. After we dropped anchor in the river, the bucksheesh somehow became satisfactory. The tea-merchants and the mandarins grew good friends again; and the Chinamen came by scores about us, offering to sell everything, and do any work at all. Master Harry, it would take me a fortnight to tell you what rogues they were how they cheated us in silks and tobacco, in pigs and in tea. The main-deck was never clear of a row while that trade lasted; but nobody dealt or squabbled more with the Chinamen than Dick Spanker.

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They told us such fine things about their town, that we grew tired of the river, particularly Dick, who latterly got in a manner wild for the shore, and used to grumble to himself by hours at the general order. Among the Canton-men there was one called Loo Chin, who dealt in all sorts of things, from pigs to porcelain; doing a little private trade in arrack and opium also. There was not a language heard at the port of Canton Loo Chin could not speak English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese, besides the Malay and Tartar tongues. He boasted that his uncle was gatekeeper to the governor, and his brother the first player in the province; but I don't think a greater knave than himself came down the river. Loo Chin was small, squat, and dirty, he had a pair of narrow, slit-like eyes, whose very light was cunning; a pigtail that nearly touched the ground; and the blackest teeth I ever saw. That Chinamen had got Dick's last cash; but he did n't know it; and "Dick bought everything while he had a it was laughable to see him offering our messfraction-Nankeen pantaloons, crape cravats, mate whatever nobody else would buy, at a tobacco-stoppers of sandal-wood, besides two price considerably raised for his special benefans, a scarlet shawl, and a set of small china, fit. Many a furious squabble they had; but for a sweetheart he said he had at Deptford; | Loo Chin always came off safe, for when falseof course, the Chinamen cheated him in every hoods failed him, he fell to flattery; and, rough bargain, and the rows between them were as Dick was, that smoothed him down. He terrible. Dick came across the discipline two praised his beauty and his manners, his riches or three times himself in consequence; and and his generosity, always rising higher in officers and men were glad when his money the strain the more he intended to cheat, till was done. By and by, we all began to wonder Dick half-believed him, but nevertheless rewhat made our captain lie so long in the served for his own entertainment the fact that river. Some said, it was to get a lot of un- his money was done, and none of our crew common grand crapes for his lady-a fine would spoil sport by mentioning it to the Chinawoman I'm told she was, living at Wool- man. Loo Chin was by far the grandest dewich; some, that he was only on the look-out scriber of Canton and its wonders. He told for shawls and tea-pots; and some, that the us of a great fish-pond, with a tame dolphin cards and dice were rather plenty at the Com-in it; of a temple to their god of the wind,

our cutlasses had n't been left in the Rattle-smoking fellows, who knew the place, and snake, I'm not sure that the captain's orders to keep peace at all hazards would have been obeyed; but unarmed as we were, there was no chance. The crowd was thickening about us every minute; the bars with which they close the streets were getting ready; we called on Dick with all the strength of our voices, but got no answer; and as the gates would be shut in another minute, we had a strong run for it to our boat. Of course, the captain was told the moment we got on board. He sent the first-lieutenant up in the cutter by daybreak, to make a report to the governor. That great Chinaman promised that Dick would be inquired for throughout the province; but the end of all was, that nothing of our messmate was seen or heard of after.

"Captain Paget inquired, threatened, and demanded leave to search the playhouse; but the party he sent for that purpose I was one of them were taken to the street; shown the spot where the house had stood; told that the players had taken it with them on their journey to the northern provinces, which they made once a year, all theatres in China being movable; and also that no stranger would be admitted to a Chinese playhouse. Loo | Chin's whereabouts nobody knew; and the captain at length concluded that Dick had gone with him to see some bargain or other, got into a quarrel, and perhaps met with foul play. Gradually we all became of that opinion; but no one cared for going on shore again; and as the time of the Rattlesnake's cruise shortly expired, we sailed home to Chatham. There it was found out that the ship wanted sundry repairs; her hands were accordingly drafted off to different vessels, and I, with some score of comrades, sent on board the Thunderer.

"There is no use in going over all that happened there; but the service was n't so easy as it had been in the Rattlesnake-we had fighting in the Mediterranean, fever at Fernando Po, and a storm in the Western Pacific, that made us glad to run into Manilla. The Spanish governor there held fast by King Ferdinand; and as England's armies were doing some tight work for him in Spain, Manilla was a friendly port for an English vessel. I remember it was just three years since we sailed from Canton-actions, fevers, and drafts had n't left one of the Rattlesnake's men on board the Thunderer but myself. The new messmates wern't quite up to the old; and though our captain was a good officer, he had a spice of pride in him that taught the whole ship their distance. There were no meetings in the forecastle, no petitioning of his Honorable Cabin, I can tell you; but going on shore was no trouble at Manilla.

"It is a dirty town, and the worst part of it is the Chinese quarter. I had strolled in there one evening with three comrades, quiet

would have me to see a Chinese play. I thought
of the old story at Canton, but they said it
was uncommon curious, and Chinamen abroad
have no such hatred to strangers as at home.
The playhouse stood in an unpaved street,
narrow and very dark, with old Spanish houses,
which the Chinese had got hold of, and set up
their shops and trades in. It was like the one
I had seen at Canton — wooden and window-
less but very full of the Chinamen, standing
thick and close round a railed space in the
middle, lighted by great torches, with a trap-
door in it, by which all the wonders came up.
I can't say what the play was about, though I
and my comrades got places quite near the
rail. There was a man with a tame lion;
another with two serpents twined about his
arms; and last of all, the glory of the house, a
great dragon, which the Chinamen said could
talk all the tongues in the world, and had been
brought from Pekin. It came up like a huge
crocodile, only covered with a hairy skin. It
had a long tail, a pair of fiery eyes that seemed
far sunk in its head, and a mouth with great
tusks in it. There was a boy on its back, and
the performance consisted in his riding round
the stage in a very gaudy dress, with a large
China cup on his head, full of tea, of which a
grain was n't to be spilled. The dragon went
round twice, and the cup kept steady, to the
Chinamen's great delight; but, by way of
gaining more applause, the boy began to strike
it with a bamboo to hasten the motion. At the
first blow, the creature stopped, and, to my
amazement, began in a smothered, snuffling
voice, to swear hard in good English. The boy
struck it again, and it tried to throw him. He
kept his seat wonderfully; but the dragon
kicked and plunged, flinging its feet about,
and trying to turn over. Strange paddles the
feet were, covered with the same hairy skin to
the toes; but somehow it had got split on one
of them, and through the rent I saw, as the
torch-light fell on it, a great thumb marked
with a double x in blue below the nail. The
next minute its rider had got the dragon hauled
near enough the trap-door, and with some help
from below, he rode it down. I did n't stay
five seconds after in the house. My comrades
laughed at my story; but I flew to the ship,
craved to see our captain, and told him all
about it. The proud, cold man bade me go
to my duty, and he would inquire into the
matter. Next morning, an officer did go on
shore, but the Chinamen's governor said it
was all a mistake, and sent a present of
imperial tea to the captain. We sailed for
Acapulco three days after. The hands on
board sometimes made jokes to themselves
about the grog being too strong for me at
Manilla; but, Master Harry, I'll never believe
that that swearing dragon was not my lost
messmate!"

PART II. -CHAPTER V.

THE next morning, Bagot, who was, when in the country, a tolerably early riser, issued forth from the house before breakfast, on his way to the stables.

The sun had been up two hours before, and was now looking warmly over some tall drooping ash-trees on to the southern entrance. Bagot stood and basked for a minute there.

all her wiles and attempts at mollification on the previous evening.

Bagot caught Kitty by the chin, as she started at his footstep, and attempted to make off; and, holding the chin between his finger and thumb, he stood looking at her simpering face, not saying anything to her at first, by reason of his continuing to retain his cigar between his teeth, while his lips separated in an approving smile.

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Baggage!" quoth the colonel, presently, taking his left hand from his coatpocket, and removing the obstructive cigar without relinquishing his hold of the chin with the right-"how the deuce d' ye think men are to do their work with that handsome saucy face of yours looking at them? Can't you let the fellows alone for five minutes together?-ha, slut!"

It was a fresh, still morning. There had been a shower in the night, and a rustling might be heard amid the grass of the lawn, as of drops penetrating. Thrushes were piping busily in the shrubbery, May-flies were on the wing amid the grass, butterflies hovered above the old-fashioned flowers, heart'sease, stocks, lilacs, and gillyflowers, whose mingled fragrance came fresh and cool upon the sense. Bagot contributed his mite to the general perfume by smoking a cigar, and exhaling with the smoke an odor of brandy; "Horses!" roared Bagot, with a laugh; for he was very shaky in the morning until he" you never looked at a horse in your life if got his dram, and would sometimes cut his he had n't a man on his back you know chin dreadfully in shaving. you did n't. By the by, I saw you yesterday at the fair, Kitty-here 's a fairing for yousomething to buy ribbons with."

The beauty of the morning was in great measure thrown away upon Bagot. He knew no more about the witchery of the soft blue sky than Peter Bell. The verdure that gave hin most pleasure, next to that of the racecourse, was the green cloth of the billiardtable. The voice of the marker calling, "Red plays on yellow," was more musical to him than the carol of all the thrushes that ever piped. He stood there in the sunlight like a nightlamp that had been left unextinguished, murky and red, in the eye of golden and scented morning.

Indeed, sir, I don't want no fellows,' said Miss Fillett, primly; "I merely kim to look at the horses."

Kitty dropt a curtsey as she pocketed the brace of half-crowns.

"How does your mistress pass the time now?" asked Bagot. "What's the new dodge? Is she chemical, or botanical, or geological, or what?"

"We've been a little astromical lately," said Miss Fillett. "But my lady's a deal more lively now since the two young ladies kim. They 're always together."

"Always together!" thought Bagot; "that won't do. How am I ever to get in a word if she always has these others at her elbow to back her up? That won't do at all;" (then aloud), “What are the young ladies like, Kitty?"

He glanced around him as he stood smoking, with his hands in his flapped skirt-pockets-looked upward at the brick front of the house, with its projecting turrets, its deep diamond-paned, stone-framed windows, and balustraded parapet - looked around at the thick shrubbery, where the uppermost laurelleaves glanced yellow amid their dark-green, glossy brethren, as the morning light slanted in - and followed some outward-bound rooks Hang your dresses!" quoth Bagot; “I in their flight over the lawn, and across the did n't ask what they 'd given you, but what river, where a solitary fly-fisher was wading they were like. Have they got any fun in to his middle, till they reached the village,'em?"

"Very nice young ladies," said Kitty. Miss Payne gave me a beautiful silk dress last week, as good as new; and, o’-Wednesday, Miss Rosa

truth."

where other rooks of congenial temperament "Indeed they have plenty," said Miss came out from the trees and joined them. Fillett, nodding her head four distinct times. And, having looked thus with his outward" They're as lively as kittens, and that's the eyes, without seeing much of it with his inner-for his busy head was now, as generally, occupied with other matters - he walked along two sides of the house, and through the shrubbery, to the stables.

"Does your mistress ride now?" asked Bagot.

"Not since the young ladies have been here, sir. They don't ride, and my lady stays with 'em for company."

Harry Noble and a boy were busy here about the horses; and Kitty Fillett had stolen I must look to this," said Bagot to himaway from her mistress to try and soften Mr. self, as, resuming his cigar, and releasing Noble, whom she had found steeled against | Miss Fillett, he entered the stable. "And,

Oh!" (calling after Kitty) "tell her lady-| ship that, with her permission, I'll have the honor of breakfasting with her."

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The stable was not so well filled now as it had been in Sir Joseph's days. Bagot cared little for hunting. Stalls labelled "Valiant," Coverley," "Bob," and "Bullfrog," were vacant, and the place of those hunters knew them no more. But the brown carriagehorses, Duke and Dandy, still stood side by side; Lady Lee's gray thoroughbred, Diana, turned her broad front and taper muzzle to look at the comer, and several others were ranged beyond.

Noble was polishing some harness, and a boy near was removing a bucket from a stall, where he had been washing the feet of a brown cob.

"Who's that?" inquired Bagot of Noble, pointing at the boy.

"The gardener's son, sir," said Noble, pausing in his occupation to touch his cap; he's been here these three weeks." "Lift that near hind-leg, boy,' ," said Bagot, pointing at the cob. The boy obeyed.

"D'ye call that dry?" said the colonel. "Don't you know it's enough to give greasy heels to a horse to leave him in that way, you careless young villain? Now look you," pursued the colonel sternly, but quite calmly, "I'm a good deal about the stables, and if ever I see you leave a horse that way again, I'll lick your life out. How 's her ladyship's mare, Noble?"

Lady Lee and her friends assembled at the usual hour in the breakfast room.

"We must wait for Colonel Lee," said her ladyship; "he is going to join us this moraing."

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Why wasn't he at dinner, yesterday " inquired Rosa.

"You must n't expect to see much of him," said Lady Lee; that is, unless you are anxious for gentlemen's society, and tell him so."

"And if we are," said Orelia putting out her lip, "what would he be among so many?

"His coming down to the Heronry never makes much difference to me," said Lady Lee. "The colonel cares as little for flowers and literature as I do for race-horses and Cuba cigars, so that we have n't much in common. But here he comes."

Bagot entered with his usual swaggering bow and betting-ring courtesy.

"Ladies, I salute you," said Bagot, putting his fingers to his lips and waving them in the air, as a salutation general. Bagot tinselled over his natural groundwork of coarse humor "She's a little sore in the mouth, from the with scraps of theatrical politeness, when in boy taking her out with a twisted snaffle," ladies' society. "Gad," he continued, as he said Noble," but she 'll be all right to-mor- drew a chair to the breakfast-table, I'm rerow. The boy's getting on - he'll do better minded at this moment of a nunnery I once soon, sir," said Noble, good-naturedly, seeing visited in Spain; the lady abbess was young, the colonel's eye fixed fiercely on the boy. and not unlike Hester-but, by Jove, the "He'd better," said the colonel, grimly. "I'll put a twisted snaffle in his mouth." And here I may remark that Bagot, in his care and affection for that noble animal, the horse, regarded stable-boys generally as a race of Yahoos, upon whom any neglect towards the superior creature they tended was to be instantly visited with unsparing severity."why did they look unhappy?" Accordingly, this morning saw the commence- Probably for the love of Heaven," said ment of a series of precepts, threats, and Orelia sarcastically. veterinary aphorisms, which continued during Bagot's stay, and nearly drove the unfortunate boy out of his senses, but which, it is justice to add, had the effect of improving the economy of the stable wonderfully.

"And this is the filly, eh!" said Bagot, strolling up to a loose-box, and looking at a well-bred, handsome, somewhat leggy bay, that stood therein. "How does she go?"

"Rather hot and fidgety," said Noble, "but her paces first-rate, sir. Canters like an armchair, and walks fast, when you can get

her to walk."

nuns could n't boast so much beauty among the whole sisterhood as I see before me" (bowing to Orelia and Rosa, with his hand on his left waistcoat-pocket). Luckily, I miss here, too, the dolefulness of aspect that characterized the poor things."

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"Dear me!" said the sympathetic Rosa,

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Yes, the elderly ones, my dear Miss Payne; but the young ones, probably, for the love of man," returned Bagot, with a nod and a chuckle. "Ah! young ladies, 't is the same all the world over; you may shut yourselves up in convents or in country houses, but you can't keep out the small boy with wings-he 's about somewhere at this m ment, I've no doubt," lifting the lid of the mustard-pot, as if he expected to find a Cupid hidden there, but it was only to make his devilled bone a little hotter.

"You'll hardly believe us," said Lady