I was clutched-and I fell at his feet-he stood shivering, completely transfixed with palsied fear, at last but not without great difficulty, he regained sufficient strength to ask, "Who's there - in the name of Father AbrahamIsaac and Jacob-speak. Who is it that disturbs poor Benjamin?" the curtains of the bed were pushed aside, and the face of a young man peeped from their folds, into the distorted and equally astonished features of the miser! "It is only I, father father!"

your son, ever kind and affectionate eh!

"And how, wretched boy, cam'st thou hither? speak, renegade, spendthrift, outlaw as you are-how came you here--how in the very ?. "Sanctum sanctum, father,

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of your unbounded avarice money, father, is here, and 'twas that brought your son-give it me, father, and your dutiful offspring will go hence." Ingrate out of my sight--I know thee not-prodigal—would you add theft to the catalogue of your crimes? -- out, I say, or else—" "I help myself, good dad; time is precious, and not to be wasted in idle discourse."

So saying, he sprung upon the old man, seized him by the throat, and with a strength seemingly beyond his years, he hurled the miser on the bed.

While he lay there struggling with rage, his hopeful son seized two bags of gold, and snatching me up from the floor where I had fallen, was to him but the work of a moment, the next he was running along South street, as if Young and his gang were at his heels. He moved with such rapidity, that it was impossible for me to ascertain his route. At last, however, he stopped at a small neat house in street, and giving three taps at the door, it was opened by a beautiful girl apparently about eighteen years of age-there was something peculiarly chaste and modest about the young

creature, which I am sorry to say of one so young, was only "seeming." I here could moralize, and point out the folly of taking the human face divine, as the index to the mind we are too often led astray by an outward appearance, and deceived in beauty, when we thought virtue backed the smile which so fitfully played around the mouth. Never trust appearances.

Lord Chesterfield says that he once had his pocket picked by one of the most accomplished gentlemen he ever encountered, and the most honest man he ever knew had one of those hang-dog looks which would have convicted him in any court in Christendom, had he been brought up to stand trial for a supposed offence. I myself was on a jury once, when a fellow-juror made his opinions up from the deepdrawn lines of the prisoner's face. I believed him an honest man, and came near starving myself and eleven companions for opinion sake. Now, all this is sheer nonsense or digression, I don't know which, and to tell you the truth, gentle reader, I do not care-for I am writing as much for my own amusement and gratification as yours; consequently we are not beholden to each other at all--and I am at liberty to digress, or moralize just as much as I please, without your concurrence or opinion. Yet erudite and good-natured reader, as we are travelling the same road, let us understand one another better; you must pardon my stepping aside occasionally to moralize, and I will wait a moment or two for you to refresh yourself at every inn we chance to meet.--This being our understanding, I will now turn back and see what has become of the dollar, the miser's son, and the beautiful girl that caused this halt in our interesting journey--Women are ever the source of -but here I go again.

As soon as she opened the door, her exclamation was,

"did it succeed!" The shaking together of the money-bags was the answer returned, and she threw her arms around his neck, as a token I presume of her thanks-women have a peculiar way of manifesting joy-in fact, it is a way that has never as yet been known to fail, and I would respectfully suggest to all married women who want a new dress, a set of jewels, or any showy article, to pursue the same course, and I venture ten to one they succeed-experience, that school of reform, taught me this some forty years ago; and I never forgot it, nor never will. We were ushered into a room tastefully decorated, a table in the centre was filled with the most delicious viands, of which they partook. "Now, Felix, my love, we have obtained the cash, let us indulge in our dreams of grandeur; to-morrow we start to the springs-and then"

"Not so fast, my Arabella-these two bags contain, it is true, sufficient for that, but I must increase it; I shall take one of these bags, and risk a portion of it at- So, farewell, my dear, and hope for the best until I return." He started on his honorable expedition, leaving his young and amiable wife (for such she truly was) to let a gallant out of the closet, where he had been for the last two hours. They seated themselves at the table, and made fun of the silly tool who catered for their indulgence. So it is with those educated in the school of vice, and generated by a mode of education as false as it is ruinous. (As I contemplate writing an essay, or delivering a lecture on female education, I shall not trespass on my reader's patience by another digression.) After a short walk, my new master arrived at one of those infernals, yclept Hells, which abound, I am sorry to say, in every populous city. The company was large, and composed of sharpers, ruined clerks, who had nearly ruined their masters, swindlers, adventurers, and men of desperate

fortunes, encumbered with large families. In a few moments I was placed on the cloth and immediately transferred to a wretched being, apparently in the last stage of poverty; he clutched me in his nervous grasp, and a ghastly smile passed over his haggard features-he continued the game until fortune began to waver-he then wisely departed, followed by a few curses muttered through grinded teeth, by wretches bordering on the verge of madness. I took one last look of the Miser's son: he stood a fixed object of desperation his under-lip quivered with a nervous excitement-his eyes reeled in their troubled sockets, with seeming insanity, as I was carried off by my new master — I heard a sigh, not loud but deep, escape from his overcharged soul. I thought of his wife—his father—and his prospect of future misery—and I rattled against two or three other dollars in the fulness of my soul, to think what mischief we innocent creatures can produce-in fact, if I had time to moralize, I could convince the most sceptical, that if we are the source of every good, we are at least, the source of every evil, and hence may be formed the original sin.

CHAPTER II.

where hopeless anguish poured her groan,

And lonely want retired to die."

My adventures, gentle reader, have nothing to do with causes or effects, or effects and causes. I do not examine the principles or motives of my "masters." They act and speak for themselves. The one into whose hands I fell, as stated in the first chapter of this remarkable history, was a man of desperate fortune; in fact his actions and conduct manifested that morbid state of feeling, which if not madness,

is closely allied to it. The first use to which he appropriated a part of the money was the purchasing of liquor, and to test its quality actually drank off at least a pint. After leaving the gin-shop he started for his home. It was situated in one of our back streets, and a most wretched looking place it appeared to be, in fact the whole neighborhood bore the sad impress of poverty. We found his wife and six ragged children seated at a table which was covered with cold victuals, evidently the fruits of a day's begging; there might be seen the mutilated carcase of a fowl, over whose well lined bones the delicate fingers of some lady had no doubt made rapid strides, while conveying the delicious morsel into her angelic mouth; there was also seen the sad remains of what was once a ham. The bone was there, but the meat had gone the way of all flesh. In the centre of the table were the ruins of an oyster pie, the roof of which had fallen in, and seemed literally "the wreck of matter and the crush" of crust. In fact here was abundance of good substantial provision, to satisfy the most outrageous stomach. In addition, however, to the eatables, there stood that spirit of the still, whose mighty influence levels reason to the dust; its contents were freely distributed among the children, to my very great astonishment. The appearance of the father created some little stir among them; but their attention was soon called to the additional cheer he brought, and their eyes glared maniac-like upon the jug of brandy he placed upon the table. The effects of this soon became apparent. Words succeeded words; recrimination, censure, and abuse followed. What little reason glimmered there a short time before, was now put out, and blows were the arguments used by the parents to restore something like order, but in vain. Such a scene ensued as sets description at defiance. What rendered it more brutal, was the fact of